Facebook allowed phone makers to access users' data: Report
New York, June 4: Raising fresh concerns about Facebook's privacy protection policies, a New York Times report has exposed how the social network allowed about 60 device makers, including Apple and Samsung, to access personal information of users and their friends.
Even before Facebook apps were widely available on smartphones, Facebook had data-sharing partnerships with the device makers, the report said citing company officials, adding that most of the deals remain in effect.
While the device partnerships allowed Facebook to expand its reach, it let the phone makers offer customers popular features of the social network, such as messaging, "like" buttons and address books.
The deals raise concerns about the company's privacy protections and compliance with a 2011 consent decree with the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC), The Times said.
Facebook, which is already under scrutiny for misuse of millions of its users' data after the Cambridge Analytica data leak scandal became public, reportedly allowed the device companies access to the data of users' friends without their explicit consent.
While Facebook's leaders said that the kind of access exploited by the political consulting firm in 2014 was cut off by the next year as it prohibited developers from collecting information from users' friends.
But the company officials did not disclose that such restrictions were not applicable to makers of cellphones, tablets and other hardware, the report said.
However, Facebook officials denied the device partnerships violated its privacy policies, the FTC agreement and pledges to users.
They said its partnerships were governed by contracts that strictly limited use of the data, including any stored on partners' servers, adding that they knew of no cases where the information had been misused.
"These partnerships work very differently from the way in which app developers use our platform," Ime Archibong, a Facebook vice president was quoted as saying.
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PM Modi attacks Cong, says it is known for "betraying" people
Bengaluru (PTI): Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday attacked the Congress, accusing it of "failing" to provide good governance due to the internal power struggles in Karnataka, and "betraying" people.
He said that a "saffron sun" was rising from Bengaluru amid the BJP's expanding political influence across the country.
Addressing a large gathering of BJP workers in Bengaluru, Modi projected the BJP-led NDA as the embodiment of political stability and development, contrasting it with what he described as Congress' "politics of betrayal" and administrative failure in states ruled by the party.
"For the past three years in Karnataka, instead of resolving people's problems, most of the government's time here has been spent resolving internal conflicts. The Congress government remained gripped by uncertainty over leadership and power-sharing arrangements," the PM said.
Modi was referring to the ongoing power tussle between Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and his deputy D K Shivakumar for the past six months.
"They cannot decide how long the chief minister will remain. They cannot decide whether another person will get a chance or not. Everything has been kept hanging," he said.
Modi said the Congress government invariably faced anti-incumbency within months because the party lacked a governance agenda. "This is because Congress only knows how to betray people. They are false themselves, and their guarantees are also false. There is no chapter on governance in Congress' book of power," he said.
Claiming that the BJP represented stability in an uncertain global environment, Modi said recent election results across states reflected growing public support for the NDA's governance model.
Referring to the NDA returning to power in Puducherry for a second consecutive term, forming government again in Assam, BJP's electoral gains in West Bengal, and the party's sweeping victory in Gujarat local body polls, he said the results indicated a decisive political shift.
"These election results are important for the direction of Indian politics. They reflect the mood of India's youth, women, farmers, poor and middle class," Modi said.
"India's people are saying that they want speed, not scams; they want solutions. They want politics based on national policy," he said.
The Prime Minister said Karnataka had historically played a pivotal role in strengthening the BJP, even during the party's early years. "I can see that a saffron sun has risen today from the land of Bengaluru. Even when the BJP was not such a large party, Karnataka gave it tremendous strength," he said.
