Senators are pressing Facebook for information on partnerships between the social media giant and mobile device manufacturers that allegedly allowed the third-party companies to access users’ personal data, sometimes without explicit permission.
Facebook permitted some 60 companies to obtain data from users’ friends, including those who believe they did not consent to such sharing, according to a report in the New York Times. The company defended its decision to allow that data to be shared, and said the use of any personal information was solely for the purpose of recreating a “Facebook-like” experience on the other operating systems. It also said such partnerships were being phased out.
On Tuesday, Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune of South Dakota and Sen. Bill Nelson of Florida, the panel’s top Democrat, asked Facebook for more information on what companies it partnered with on the project, whether federal regulators had knowledge of the arrangements and why certain data was stored on servers owned by the third party businesses.
“Given the Committee’s ongoing oversight of Facebook’s data privacy and security practices … we write to request a further explanation on this issue,” the senators wrote.
A Facebook spokesperson did not respond to request for comment.
[Related: Apple CEO Tim Cook: Government regulation of tech companies a ‘fair’ question due to privacy risks]
The inquiry comes after the panel, in partnership with the Senate Judiciary Committee, brought chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg to Capitol Hill earlier this year to press him on how British political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica was able to access the personal information of as many as 87 million Facebook users.
The congressional inquires stemming from the most recent allegations are likely to continue.
A spokeswoman for Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, the top Democrat on the Senate intelligence panel, asked Facebook whether Chinese-owned Huawei Technologies Co., or ZTE Corp., were among those mobile device manufacturers that the Menlo Park, Calif.-based company partnered with. Warner also requested more information on what companies were able to store the personal information on their own servers.
Elected officials have charged for years that ZTE and Huawei essentially act as conduits for Chinese espionage across the globe. The federal government has sought to limit the ability of both firms to operate in the U.S. The Pentagon has banned the sale of phones from either manufacturer on military bases and the Federal Trade Commission is considering a move to effectively prevent rural carriers from using products produce by either Huawei or ZTE.
The Commerce Department in April issued a denial order in April preventing any company from selling parts or software to ZTE for seven years. The order was reportedly reversed after President Trump interjected and the firm agreed to several stipulations, including an overhaul of its U.S. executive team.
