WASHINGTON — A top congressional Democrat slammed Facebook over a report alleging the company shared its users personal data with a range of devicemakers.
“Sure looks like Zuckerberg lied to Congress about whether users have complete control over who sees our data on Facebook. This needs to be investigated and the people responsible need to be held accountable,” tweeted David Cicilline, the ranking member of the House judiciary antitrust subcommittee.
The New York Times reported late Sunday that Facebook “reached data-sharing partnerships with at least 60 device makers — including Apple, Amazon, BlackBerry, Microsoft and Samsung — over the last decade.” The story says Facebook began winding down the partnerships in April, but raises questions about whether they violated a 2011 consent decree with the Federal Trade Commission.
The social network has been under growing pressure over its handling of user data. Zuckerberg testified before Congress in April over the Cambridge Analytica controversy, defending his company against criticism that it allowed the President Donald Trump-linked firm to improperly access information on as many as 87 million Facebook users via an academic researcher.
Facebook, in a blog post, pushed back against the Times story, saying that the arrangements with devicemakers “allowed companies to recreate Facebook-like experiences for their individual devices or operating systems” and that the company “controlled them tightly from the get-go.”
