Federal prosecutors investigate Facebook data transactions with phone makers

Federal prosecutors pursue criminal investigation into Facebook's data transactions with major technology companies, The New York Times reported today.

According to Time, a grand jury in New York conducted the investigation and subpoenaed documents emanating from at least two large companies manufacturing smartphones. Businesses have made agreements with Facebook to access user data such as friend lists and contact information without the explicit consent of its users.

"It has already been reported that federal investigations are ongoing, including by the Justice Department," said a spokesman for Facebook. The edge. "As we said before, we cooperate with investigators and take these investigations seriously. We testified in public, answered questions and made the commitment to continue to do so. "

Transactions were reported for the first time last June after Time had discovered that Facebook shared user data with manufacturers like Apple, Samsung and Blackberry. The agreements were made to help Facebook create apps for their respective devices. The move was aimed at helping both Facebook and businesses build the devices used by users to access Facebook products. It is unclear whether these companies are the ones currently being investigated by prosecutors.

It is also unclear when the investigation began or when the grand jury was formed. The Federal Trade Commission has opened an investigation on Facebook for several months following its scandal at Cambridge Analytica, following which a third-party search application has obtained data from about 87 million Facebook users. . It has been reported that Facebook would probably be fined several billion dollars because of the scandal and data breaches that followed.

The Ministry of Justice has also opened a specific investigation at Cambridge Analytica on Facebook. In the aftermath of the scandal, US lawmakers held hearings and began lobbying technology companies about their data practices. Congress leaders have called for the adoption of a general law on the protection of personal data later this year.

Last week, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that the company would adopt a privacy-focused model while merging the underlying infrastructure of its messaging applications.

Updated on 13/03/19 at 20:50 ET: Updated to include a Facebook statement.