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Federal prosecutors are conducting a criminal investigation into Facebook's data transactions with some of the world's largest technology companies, stepping up control of the social media giant's business practices as it seeks to bounce back from a year-long scandal and setbacks.
A New York grand jury has summoned documents from at least two leading smartphone and device manufacturers, according to two people who knew the requests and who insisted that the legal issues remain confidential. Both companies had partnerships with Facebook, gaining broad access to the personal information of hundreds of millions of users.
The companies were part of more than 150 companies, including Amazon, Apple, Microsoft and Sony, which had shared agreements with the world's leading social media platform. The agreements, previously reported in the New York Times, allow businesses to view users' friends, contact information and other data, sometimes without consent. Facebook has eliminated most of the partnerships in the last two years.
"We cooperate with the investigators and take these investigations seriously," a Facebook spokesman said in a statement. "We have provided public testimony, answered questions and made the commitment to continue to do so."
Sharing agreements have allowed Microsoft's Bing search engine to map friends of virtually all Facebook users without their explicit consent, and has allowed Amazon to get users' names and contact information through of their friends. Apple was able to hide from Facebook users all the indicators indicating that its devices were even asking for data.
Privacy advocates said the partnerships appeared to violate a 2011 consent agreement between Facebook and F.T.C, stemming from allegations that the company allegedly shared data in a misleading way for consumers. The agreements also seemed to contradict statements by Mark Zuckerberg and other leaders that Facebook banned data exchange with outside developers several years ago.
F.T.C. officials, who spent the last year investigating whether Facebook violated the 2011 deal, now weigh the sharing agreements as they negotiate a possible multi-billion dollar fine. It would be the heaviest penalty of this kind ever inflicted by the regulator of commerce.
Facebook aggressively defended the partnerships, claiming that they were allowed under a provision of the F.T.C. law. agreement that covered service providers – companies that acted as extensions of the social network.
The company has taken steps over the past year to combat the misuse and misinformation of the data. Last week, Zuckerberg unveiled a plan that would start making Facebook a public sharing platform and put more emphasis on private communications.
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