Facebook Admits To Sharing User Data With Chinese Mobile Firms, Including Huawei!

This one can hit Facebook hard. Very hard indeed.

Facebook has admitted that they shared users’ data with Chinese mobile companies including Huawei, which is considered a ‘national security risk’ in the US.

After this admittance, both Republican and Democratic U.S. lawmakers have started pressing Zuckerberg to be more transparent regarding their data sharing activities with Chinese.

But why did Facebook share data with the Chinese?

Facebook: We Shared User Data With Huawei & Other Chinese Mobile Firms

In the month of February, 6 US Intelligence Agencies had warned Americans against using Huawei smartphones, as they feared that the users’ data is being transferred to Chinese servers.

And it is common knowledge that Chinese Govt. has some deep connections with Huawei.

Amidst this chaos, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has admitted that they had partnerships and tie ups with Chinese mobile firms, including Huawei.

This partnership enabled them to share users’ data with these Chinese firms. And not only users’ data, but their friends’ data as well.

Huawei hasn’t denied this fact but confirmed that they have never stored any data.

A Huawei spokesperson said,

“Like all leading smartphone providers, Huawei has worked with Facebook to make Facebook’s services more convenient for users. Huawei has never collected or stored any Facebook user data.”

Along with leading Chinese smartphone makers, Facebook also had such partnerships with Amazon, Apple, BlackBerry and Samsung since 2010.

Interestingly, Facebook is blocked in China since 2009, and the reason for the block is data sharing issues.

But Why Did Facebook Share Users’ Data With Chinese Firms?

The reason for such partnerships of Facebook with Chinese mobile firms is the mobile usability.

Between 2007 and 2013, Facebook failed miserably on their mobile front, as users refused to use their app (which was still at the nascent stage), and their mobile usage declined to alarming levels.

In fact, in 2012, Facebook warned all investors about this issue.

Due to this reason, Facebook partnered with leading Chinese and other mobile manufacturers, to enable them to introduce simpler features.

In Huawei’s case, Facebook data helped them to feed their social app, which showed all notifications in one place.

None the less, US lawmakers won’t take this admittance lightly and this could prove to be a tough week for Mark Zuckerberg.

Facebook has assured that such partnerships are ending soon.

We will keep you updated as we receive more inputs.