Clandestine Facebook deals gave special firms access to user's data
Social media giant Facebook had customized data-sharing deal known internally as "whitelists" with certain companies giving them special access to user's records, a Wall Street Journal report said. "That included information like phone numbers and a metric called 'friend link' that measured the degree of closeness between users and others in their network, the people (familiar with the matter) said," it reported. Here's more.
Deals struck with companies like Nissan Motor Co.
The whitelists deals were struck with companies including Royal Bank of Canada and Nissan Motor Co., which advertised on Facebook. The report comes days after it was reported that Facebook had a data-sharing partnership with at least 60 device makers. Facebook said it allowed some partners to access data about a user's friends after the data was shut off to developers in 2015.
Facebook confessed extending deals beyond May 2015 for some companies
Facebook maintained a principled approach to how it works with developers over the course of the past 11 years, Ime Archibong, Facebook's Vice President of Product Partnerships said. He acknowledged that a subset of companies were given extensions beyond May 2015. He added as they were winding down over the year, there was a small number of companies that asked for a short-term extension.
Previous criticism towards data-sharing deals and Cambridge Analytica
Facebook is already facing severe backlash globally for improperly sharing personal data of up to 87 million people with the UK-based Cambridge Analytica. Cambridge Analytica, a data-mining firm, is embroiled in a scandal purportedly over its work for US President Donald Trump's 2016 campaign and is alleged to have improperly obtained information from tens of millions of Facebook users to develop political ads.
