Huawei was able to access Facebook data to get the leading social network's applications to perform on smartphones, according to the California-based company.
Social Networking service company, Facebook has confirmed on Tuesday, 05 June 2018 that a Chinese phone maker deemed a national security threat by the US was among companies given access to data on users.
According to reports by The New York Times, Huawei was able to access Facebook data to get the social network's applications to perform on smartphones, according to the California-based company.
The agreements gave the Chinese firms some access to users' data to help them build Facebook "experiences" on their own platforms.
"Facebook along with many other US tech companies have worked with them and other Chinese manufacturers to integrate their services onto these phones," Facebook mobile partnerships leader Francisco Varela said in a statement.
"Given the interest from Congress, we wanted to make clear that all the information from these integrations with Huawei was stored on the device, not on Huawei's servers."
Facebook also had data access deals with Lenovo, OPPO and TCL of China, according to Varela.
However, Facebook said that it does not know of any privacy abuse by cellphone makers who years ago were able to gain access to personal data on users and their friends. The social media leader said it “disagreed” with the conclusions of a New York Times report that found that the device makers could access information on Facebook users’ friends without their explicit consent.
But the report raised concerns that massive databases on users and their friends -- including personal data and photographs could be in the hands of device makers.
Huawei maintains that its products "meet the highest standards of security, privacy and engineering in every country we operate," and that "no government has ever asked us to compromise the security or integrity of any of our networks or devices."
The company is already under scrutiny over how it uses members' information and has been blocked in China since 2009 but the company has been trying to find other ways to access the massive potential market.
By Neo Sesinye
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