Facebook’s
relationship with partner companies came under further scrutiny,
after it was found it offered deeper access to user records in a
series of customised data sharing deals.
The Wall
Street Journal (WSJ)
reported Facebook struck agreements, known internally as whitelists,
with a small group of companies allowing access to users’ data
including connections, phone numbers and a metric which measures the
closeness of a user with others in its network.
Facebook
acknowledged the deals to WSJ, which
includes agreements with companies including Royal Bank of
Canada and car maker Nissan, among others. Aceess was offered to
companies which advertise on the social network or were valuable for
other reasons, the newspaper said.
The
company continued to offer such access for periods lasting weeks and
months after declaring it had cut off access to third party
developers in 2015.
Company
officials told WSJ Facebook
struck the deals to improve user experience, test new features and
allow certain partners to wind down existing data sharing projects.
The
revelation is the latest in a string of setbacks for the company,
which faced fierce criticism in recent months over its data sharing
activities.
Last
week, Facebook’s data sharing practiceswith 60 device makers,
including China-headquartered vendors, was flagged by a US
politician. The company also continues to deal with the fallout of
revelations in March it shared data of 87 million users with
Cambridge Analytica.
CEO
Mark Zuckerberg faced scrutiny from politicians in the US and
Europe following the scandal, during which he stated the company
moved to eliminate broad access to information about users’ friends
in 2014, with developers given until May 2015 to comply, added WSJ
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