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Facebook Confirms Data-Sharing Deals With Chinese Tech Firms (wsj.com)

Posted by msmash on from the more-you-know dept.

Facebook confirmed this week that it struck data partnerships with at least four Chinese electronics firms, including Huawei, a telecommunications-equipment maker that U.S. officials view as a potential tool for state-sponsored spying. WSJ: The four partnerships are among the roughly 60 that Facebook struck with device manufacturers starting in 2007 so they could recreate the Facebook service on their devices, a Facebook spokeswoman said. As of Tuesday, more than half of those partnerships have been wound down, the spokeswoman added. The social-media company said it plans to wind down its data-sharing partnership with Huawei by the end of the week. It isn't clear when Facebook will end partnerships with the three other companies: Lenovo, the world's largest personal-computer maker; Oppo, a smartphone maker; and Chinese electronics conglomerate TCL.

39 comments

  1. first! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    first!

  2. Outrage if Republicans get the data!!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Facebook: "We'll sell our data on you to the Chinese, give it to Obama for free, but we'll get all indignant if an EVUL RETHUGLICAN gets his hands on it!!!"

    1. Re:Outrage if Republicans get the data!!!! by viperidaenz · · Score: 1

      I doubt they sold the data to the Chinese manufacturers. I bet they paid them to take it, in exchange for preinstalling Facebook software on the devices.

  3. Safer by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Well, that actually makes Chinese phones safer than US made. Unintended market effect?

    1. Re: Safer by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Idiotic.

  4. am I the only one who's not concerned? by Artem+S.+Tashkinov · · Score: 2

    When you upload something to the cloud without first encrypting it using the keys only you know, then it automatically becomes public and known by third parties the moment it leaves your PC. So, what's all the fuss about? What kind of privacy did people/authorities actually expect? Or maybe they believed that the engineers in the said companies never pry into their users lives? Oh, wait, they do ...

    In short, you must only upload and share only the things you can show to the entire world. End of story. Oh, it's almost the same for unencrypted email and certain instant messengers.

    1. Re:am I the only one who's not concerned? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This is mass aggregate data including non-facebook behavior. Not just some schmos pr0n collection

    2. Re:am I the only one who's not concerned? by XSportSeeker · · Score: 4, Insightful

      It's not about people like you. It's about the aggregate data and what businesses have been doing with all that, plus the underground economy that came out of these sorts of deals.
      Let go of the "I have nothing to hide" mentality and look at the bigger picture.

    3. Re:am I the only one who's not concerned? by MoarSauce123 · · Score: 1

      Even if it is encrypted, I bet in cloud data centers around the world folks are pulling drives and copy the content down, then have all the time they need to decrypt it. If you do not want others to get their paws on your data then don't put it in the cloud.

    4. Re:am I the only one who's not concerned? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Exactly. I don't get why people can't understand this. You aren't special enough to not be predictable at this point. Even if they weren't able to hoover up your data there are millions in the US alone just like you and they know everything they need to know. There is no such thing as going off the grid anymore.

    5. Re:am I the only one who's not concerned? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Um how would that help? With proper encryption unless you have a quantum processor that doesn't exist having the encrypted files would do nothing.

    6. Re:am I the only one who's not concerned? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      My pr0n collection is mass aggregate data, you insensitive clod.

    7. Re:am I the only one who's not concerned? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What on earth are they planning to do with it? Attack you while you sleep so they can win? Dear god save us all, the Chinese laptop computer manufacturer has our data.

    8. Re:am I the only one who's not concerned? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Are you a complete moron, or just partial?

    9. Re:am I the only one who's not concerned? by AHuxley · · Score: 1

      China now has the keys. Another Western company that thought it could sell into China by handing over its keys.

      --
      Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
    10. Re:am I the only one who's not concerned? by crimson+tsunami · · Score: 1

      unless

    11. Re:am I the only one who's not concerned? by ConceptJunkie · · Score: 1

      The Chinese know that I have weird tastes in music, watch MST3K and think the Demmycrats are corrupt. I'm checking under my bed every night for both the Yellow Peril _and_ the Red Menace.

      I know it's a real concern, but the only options are to avoid social media completely, or try to be reasonable about what I share about myself.

      --
      You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.
    12. Re: am I the only one who's not concerned? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Either you are using compromised encryption, have knowledge about widespread quantum computing that has not been reported publicly, or you know nothing about the subject.

      Spoiler alert: Using conventional computing at modern performance levels, it will take until the heat death of the universe to brute force an AES-256 key.

    13. Re:am I the only one who's not concerned? by viperidaenz · · Score: 1

      They collected data on the users of phones with Facebook preinstalled, without the users knowing or giving them an opportunity to say no.
      They didn't need to ever open the Facebook app for Facebook to collect and share the data.

  5. Oops by Aadarshkothari · · Score: 0

    Now should we trust social media sites? I mean it should not be done... I know we accept all the terms and policy while creating our account but who has time to read it all?

  6. Just so people know.... by XSportSeeker · · Score: 2

    Lenovo = Motorola
    TCL = Blackberry

    1. Re:Just so people know.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And? Is brand loyalty more important to national and personal security?

    2. Re:Just so people know.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Oppo = OnePlus

    3. Re:Just so people know.... by viperidaenz · · Score: 1

      Motorola used to be American owned. Google bought it then sold it a few years later minus the patents to Lenovo, who were an American company before IBM sold the division to China.

      Blackberry was Canadian before it was sold to China.

  7. People should be concerned by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    I think when ever you have data being shared to a Chinese company it is most likely accessed by Chinese government. Unlike the US and EU the Chinese government has a lot of control over companies. Much like Russia the Chinese government is very much imposing its power over collecting data about the US. How do you think China has all its technology? Facebook again seem very naive in making these arrangements,

    1. Re:People should be concerned by MoarSauce123 · · Score: 1

      Sugarmountain has apparently not learned a thing from the CA blowup. No wonder, peddling personal data is the core business model of FB.

  8. I'm a fucking genius ... apk by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    See subject. I am a fucking genius because I can run ping on linux not as root
    Crazy right, but here I am able to do the impossiable
    All you fags can't which is why you should run my incredible APK hosts file engine version 77.839#^#W*+++ now for linux
    If you don't or disagree with me you are a fucking ne'er-do-well and I will fucking fuck your fucking face up

  9. Preseeeeeent Ass! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Beeeeeeeeend Over!

    Spreeeeeeeeeeead Cheeks!

    You silly Facebook people demanded getting reamed by anyone, by everyone.

  10. Stop using that word "sharing" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Let's stop helping them by using their marketing word "sharing" and start using the appropriate word SELLING. Facebook isn't "sharing" your personal data, they're SELLING your personal data.

    "Sharing" is a selfless act driven by altruism. Facebook isn't "sharing" anything (barf) -- what they're doing is raking in cold hard cash.

  11. I hope they keep it by houghi · · Score: 1

    As a European I hope they keep the deals. The data has already been shared and I look forward to the extra 4% of their annual revenue as income for Europe. At least for the first year. After that they will most likely be asked to shut down operation in Europe. So a win-win for all.

    --
    Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
    1. Re:I hope they keep it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So a win-win for all.

      Except for all those small and medium companies in the EU that will be cut off from affordable ways to reach consumers. No more reaching potential customers, no more competing with companies in the rest of the world.

      Hell, Germany just had a ruling that indicates it's against the law to have a commercial social media page like on Facebook.

      We're well on our way to a pre-Internet age, especially with the next massive regulation being voted on soon (https://saveyourinternet.eu/).

    2. Re:I hope they keep it by viperidaenz · · Score: 1

      So EU companies won't be able to reach non-EU countries and non-EU companies with any presence in EU won't be able to reach EU or non-EU countries.

      I suppose if a non-EU company wanted to cut themselves entirely out of a huge market, they could save a bit on tax at the cost of revenue from nearly a billion people.

  12. Marketing has changed radically by Nicole+Evans · · Score: 0

    Social Media is accepted as one of the factors/parameters when considering ranking of the page. It allows small size companies to reach large target audience using Facebook Marketing and Twitter Marketing. Combine these giants with your great quality content and you are ready to make a mark on your competitors...

  13. I cannot comprehend this summary by MobyDisk · · Score: 1

    Facebook confirmed this week that it struck data partnerships with at least four Chinese electronics firms, including Huawei...partnerships are among the roughly 60...

    So Facebook is making lots of deals, Huawei is one. Got it.

    As of Tuesday, more than half of those partnerships have been wound down

    Wait, are they making deals or ending deals? Oh, maybe the deals ended Tuesday and they are making new deals?

    The social-media company said it plans to wind down its data-sharing partnership with Huawei

    This confirm that they are ending deals, not making them.

    At this point, I have no idea what this summary is saying. The article is paywalled so that doesn't help. The little bit I can read says that the phone manufacturers want your Facebook contacts and stuff. But they already know your phone contacts and location information. What do they want Facebook data on? And why on earth would someone agree to that?

    What the heck is going on?

    1. Re:I cannot comprehend this summary by viperidaenz · · Score: 1

      They made deals with everyone they could.

      The word got out and it's bad for publicity that they were giving away everyone's data, if they knew about it or not, so they're now ending the deals.

      I assume they wanted the data via Facebook, because it would be illegal for them to collect it themselves without prior explicit consent. If the users didn't consent they wouldn't get the data. If they could no longer use their device because they said no, they would be entitled to a refund.

  14. Re: When you betray your country... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    They said the Republican senators never interviewed former Obama administration officials involved, and noted that no Democrats were involved.