Facebook Inc. disputed concerns raised in a report by The New York Times regarding deals the company struck a decade ago with nearly 60 device manufacturers for access to information about Facebook users.
In a June 3 blog post explaining the agreements, Ime Archibong, vice president of product partnerships, said the device manufacturers, including Apple Inc., Amazon.com Inc., BlackBerry Ltd., HTC Corp., Microsoft Corp. and Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., could use the data only to create their own versions of the Facebook app, which he described as a necessity in the early days of mobile devices when Facebook did not have the resources to create its own apps for all of the then-popular devices.
"Given that these APIs enabled other companies to recreate the Facebook experience, we controlled them tightly from the get-go," Archibong wrote. "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." The company is not aware of any data abuses by these companies, he added.
The company is in the process of phasing out these partnerships — ending 22 so far — as many are no longer needed since most cell phone users are on devices running on iOS or Google Inc.'s Android operating system, Archibong said.
In March, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission confirmed that it is investigating the company's data privacy practices. The news came after Facebook revealed it suspended the accounts of British company Strategic Communication Laboratories and its political data analytics firm Cambridge Analytica LLC, as well as Christopher Wylie of Eunoia Technologies, for violating the platform's personal data policies.
In its report, the Times raised questions about whether Facebook's deal with device manufacturers could violate the terms of a 2011 consent decree with the Federal Trade Commission, claims that Facebook has disputed.
