New Revelations of Facebook Data Sharing With Device Makers Raises Questions - CPO Magazine

After a New York Times reporter published a bombshell story on how Facebook intentionally shared personal information of its users with over 60 different device makers – including the two largest, Apple and Samsung – in order to create "Facebook-like experiences" on those devices, U.S lawmakers and regulators are asking Facebook for answers. What they see is a clear pattern of abuse, in which Facebook pledges over and over again that it has figured out its data sharing problem, but new revelations continually come to light. In its defense, Facebook says that the data sharing partnerships with mobile device manufacturers were only intended to make it easier for these global device makers to build software incorporating Facebook functionality into their smartphone devices. According to Ime Archibong, Facebook Vice President of Product Partnerships, the data-sharing program was controlled and monitored by Facebook from the very beginning, and all integrations with the device manufacturers were personally approved by Facebook. Moreover, while personal user data might have been shared with these device makers, Facebook says it was only used in order to give users access to Facebook messages and notifications on their mobile phones. But the New York Times report suggests that the data-sharing program went far beyond this.