Facebook drew fresh criticism from US lawmakers following revelations that it allowed Chinese smartphone makers, including one deemed a national security threat, access to user data.
The world’s largest social network confirmed late Tuesday that China-based Huawei — which has been banned by the US military and a lightning rod for cyberespionage concerns — was among device makers authorized to see user data.
Facebook has claimed the agreements with some 60 device makers dating from a decade ago were designed to help the social media giant get more services into the mobile ecosystem.
Nonetheless, lawmakers expressed outrage that Chinese firms were given access to user data at a time when officials were trying to block their access to the US market over national security concerns.
Senator Ed Markey said Facebook’s chief executive has some more explaining to do following these revelations.
“Mark Zuckerberg needs to return to Congress and testify why @facebook shared Americans’ private information with questionable Chinese companies,” the Massachusetts Democrat said on Twitter.
“Our privacy and national security cannot be the cost of doing business.”
Other lawmakers zeroed in on the concerns about Huawei’s ties to the Chinese government, even though the company has denied the allegations.
“This could be a very big problem,” tweeted Senator Marco Rubio, a Florida Republican.
“If @Facebook granted Huawei special access to social data of Americans this might as well have given it directly to the government of #China.”
Representative Debbie Dingell called the latest news on Huawei “outrageous” and urged a new congressional probe.
“Why does Huawei, a company that our intelligence community said is a national security threat, have access to our personal information?” said Dingell, a Michigan Democrat, on Twitter.
“With over 184 million daily Facebook users in US & Canada, the potential impact on our privacy & national security is huge.”
