Facebook defends data-sharing partnerships with phone makers
New York, June 4: After a New York Times report claimed that Facebook allowed about 60 device makers, including Apple and Samsung, to access personal information of users and their friends, the social network has defended the pacts saying that these partnerships do not raise privacy concerns.
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.
Facebook said that the partners signed agreements that prevented people's information from being used for any other purpose than to recreate Facebook-like experiences.
"Partners could not integrate the user's Facebook features with their devices without the user's permission," Ime Archibong, Facebook's Vice President of Product Partnerships, said in a statement on Sunday.
Archibong said that in the early days of mobile, the demand for Facebook outpaced the company's ability to build versions of the product that worked on every phone or operating system.
"It's hard to remember now but back then there were no app stores. So companies like Facebook, Google, Twitter and YouTube had to work directly with operating system and device manufacturers to get their products into people's hands," Archibong said.
"This took a lot of time -- and Facebook was not able to get to everyone. To bridge this gap, we built a set of device-integrated APIs that allowed companies to recreate Facebook-like experiences for their individual devices or operating systems," Archibong added.
Facebook launched the device-integrated APIs about a decade ago and said that all these partnerships were built on a common interest -- the desire for people to be able to use Facebook whatever their device or operating system.
"Given that these APIs enabled other companies to recreate the Facebook experience, we controlled them tightly from the get-go," Archibong said.
The New York Times report claimed that the deals raise concerns about the company's privacy protections and compliance with a 2011 consent decree with the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC).
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, even after declaring that it would no longer share such information with outsiders.
Some device-makers could retrieve personal information even from users' friends who believed they had barred any sharing, The New York Times found.
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.
Facebook responded by saying that 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.
"We are not aware of any abuse by these companies," Archibong said, adding that the device partnerships very different from the public APIs used by third-party developers who used the Facebook information people shared with them to build completely new experiences.
Facebook said that it had already ended 22 of the device partnerships.
"Now that iOS and Android are so popular, fewer people rely on these APIs to create bespoke Facebook experiences. It's why we announced in April that we're winding down access to them. We've already ended 22 of these partnerships," Archibong said.
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PM Modi attends opening ceremony of Arabian Gulf Cup in Kuwait
Kuwait City (PTI): Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday attended the opening ceremony of the 26th Arabian Gulf Cup as the chief guest at the Jaber Al-Ahmad International Stadium here, on his two-day visit to the Gulf nation, the first for any Indian prime minister in 43 years.
Modi is visiting Kuwait at the invitation of Kuwaiti Emir Sheikh Meshal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah.
The prime minister joined the Emir, the Crown Prince, and the Prime Minister of Kuwait in witnessing the grand opening ceremony.
The event also provided an opportunity for an informal interaction of the prime minister with the leadership of Kuwait, the Ministry of External Affairs said in a press release.
Kuwait was scheduled to play Oman in the opening game of the eight-team tournament.
Kuwait is hosting the biennial Arabian Gulf Cup with participation from eight countries, including GCC nations, Iraq, and Yemen.
The tournament is one of the most prominent sporting events in the region. Kuwait has won the tournament maximum times among the participating countries.
Earlier, addressing a large gathering of the Indian community at a special event ‘Hala Modi’ at the Sheikh Saad Al-Abdullah Indoor Sports Complex in the city, Modi praised the diaspora's contribution to global growth and said that India has the potential to become the “skill capital of the world”.
“Every year, hundreds of Indians come to Kuwait. You have added an Indian touch to Kuwaiti society. You have filled the canvas of Kuwait with the colors of Indian skills. You have mixed the essence of India's talent, technology, and tradition in Kuwait,” Modi said.
The prime minister expressed happiness about the presence of Indians from diverse corners of the country in the gulf nation and called it a “mini-Hindustan.”
Modi is set to meet the Emir, the Crown Prince, and the Prime Minister of Kuwait on Sunday.
