Title : Facebook let SIXTY companies have 'deep access personal data about users'
link : Facebook let SIXTY companies have 'deep access personal data about users'
Facebook let SIXTY companies have 'deep access personal data about users'
- Facebook allowed cell phone makers deep user data access, says report Sunday
- Companies such as Apple, Amazon, Microsoft and Samsung were given access
- The data of users' friends was reportedly shared even if they had opted out
- Apparently contradicts what Facebook vowed after Cambridge Analytica fiasco
- Facebook defends deals as consistent with policy and say no abuse occurred
- Company has severed 22 of the partnerships since announcing sunset in April
Facebook gave at least 60 device makers broad access to its users' information, potentially in conflict with what the company told Congress, a new report has revealed.
Many of the partnerships, with companies such as Apple, Amazon, BlackBerry, Microsoft and Samsung, remain in effect even after Facebook began to quietly unwind them in April, according to a lengthy report in the New York Times.
Under some of the agreements, device makers could access the data of users' friends, even if they believed that they had barred sharing, the Times reported citing company officials.
Facing blowback from the Cambridge Analytica data harvesting scandal in March, Facebook vowed that it had put an end to that kind of information sharing, but never revealed that device makers had a special exemption.
However, Facebook blasted back at the Times report, saying the newspaper has misinterpreted the purpose and function of its so-called 'device-integrated APIs' - the software that allows hardware companies to bridge into Facebook's database to offer versions of the app on their operating systems.
Facebook co-founder, Chairman and CEO Mark Zuckerberg arrives to testify before a combined Senate Judiciary and Commerce committee hearing in April
'In the early days of mobile, the demand for Facebook outpaced our ability to build versions of the product that worked on every phone or operating system,' Ime Archibong, Facebook's VP of Product Partnerships, wrote in a Sunday statement responding to the Times report.
'It's hard to remember now but back then there were no app stores.'
'To bridge this gap, we built a set of device-integrated APIs that allowed companies to recreate Facebook-like experiences for their individual devices or operating systems.'
'Contrary to claims by the New York Times, friends' information, like photos, was only accessible on devices when people made a decision to share their information with those friends,' Archibong wrote.
Archibong said that these device interfaces are 'very different' from the type of public interfaces that allowed Cambridge Analytica to harvest data on millions of users.
Apple was among the companies that used device-integrated APIs to serve up a version of Facebook on its hardware, but the deals are now under scrutiny. Pictured: Apple CEO Tim Cook
On April 24, weeks after CEO Mark Zuckerberg testified to Congress about user privacy, Facebook said in an announcement to developers that it was winding down access to device-integrated APIs.
According to Archibong, 22 of the partnerships have already ended.
Zuckerberg was adamant before Congress that Facebook is seriously committed to users' privacy.
'Every piece of content that you share on Facebook you own,' he told a combined Senate Judiciary and Commerce committee. 'You have complete control over who sees it and how you share it.'
Critics of the company say that the device-integrated APIs are a violation of that control, however, allowing device makers a direct line into user data.
Sandy Parakilas, a former third-party advertising and privacy compliance for Facebook's platform told the Times that he believes the fact that the deals continue to exist contradicts Zuckerberg's testimony.
Critics of the company say that the device-integrated APIs breached users' control over their data in a way that contradicts Zuckerberg's Congressional testimony (above)
'This was flagged internally as a privacy issue,' in 2012 said Parakilas, who left Facebook that year and is now a harsh critic of the company.
'It is shocking that this practice may still continue six years later, and it appears to contradict Facebook's testimony to Congress that all friend permissions were disabled.'
Amazon and Samsung declined to comment on whether they had access to Facebook user data through the APIs.
Apple said that it had previously used the software interfaces to allow iPhone users to do things like post photos to Facebook without opening the app, but that its device access was terminated in September.
Microsoft said its API access ended in 2008, adding that the bridge was used to do things like add contacts and receive notifications, and that all data was stored locally on the user's device.
BlackBerry said that the access was only used to give its own customers access to Facebook and messages.
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