Facebook confirmed yesterday regarding the present Facebook data-sharing partnerships with four Chinese companies, Huawei being one of them. The social media giant added that it is to end the partnership with Huawei later this week.
The reference to these partnerships came to light via scrutiny of American intelligence agencies on security concerns following the big report in New York Times that came out last Sunday, which was immediately countered by Facebook via a blog featuring its alibi.
The other three companies besides Huawei are Lenovo, OPPO, and TCL. Facebook said that it is on course to end these partnerships too. These are among the 60 companies that the social media firm partnered with on deep access without user consent 10 years ago, and most of the partnerships have already been ended.
Now, the Chinese telecommunications firms are as well being scrutinized by American intelligence officials. The claims are that these firms create spaces to inspire foreign espionage and threaten critical American infrastructure. The Chinese have been persistent in denial of these claims.
While privacy concerns regarding Facebook’s data sharing have been continuing since the Cambridge Analytica issue, the new claims involve the Chinese servers. American officials suspect that the servers of the vast nation contain shared user data.
The news that Facebook provided privileged access to Facebook’s API to Chinese device makers like Huawei and TCL raises legitimate concerns, and I look forward to learning more about how Facebook ensured that information about their users was not sent to Chinese servers. – Mark Warner, senior Senator of Virginia
At the end of the day, no abuse report was reported by the 60 companies in the 10-year period. Also, Facebook comes up with efforts to establish it is strictly committed to social standards. We sincerely hope that the company and the American government soon come to terms regarding data privacy issues.
