China's Huawei says it hasn't collected Facebook user data

Chinese mobile phone maker Huawei said today it has never collected or stored Facebook user data, after the social media giant acknowledged it shared such data with Huawei and other manufacturers.

Huawei, a company flagged by US intelligence officials as a national security threat, was the latest device maker at the center of a fresh wave of allegations over Facebook's handling of private data.

Chinese firms Huawei, Lenovo, Oppo and TCL were among numerous handset makers that were given access to Facebook data in a "controlled" way approved by Facebook, the social media giant's vice president of mobile partnerships, Francisco Varela, said in a statement today.

The statement came after The New York Times published reports detailing how Facebook has given device makers deep access to the data of users' friends without their explicit consent. The data included work history, relationship status and likes on device users and their friends.

In a follow-up report, The Times said the recipients of Facebook data included Chinese firms like Huawei that have long been labeled a national security threat by Congress. Facebook told the newspaper it would end its data partnership with Huawei by the end of this week.

Senator Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said the news raises legitimate concerns and wanted to know how Facebook ensured data was not transferred to Chinese servers.

"Given the interest from Congress, we wanted to make clear that all the information from these integrations with Huawei was stored on the device, not on Huawei's servers," Facebook's Varela said today.

Huawei said its cooperation with Facebook was aimed at improving services for its users.

"Like all leading smartphone providers, Huawei worked with Facebook to make Facebook's services more convenient for users," Huawei spokesman Joe Kelly said in a text message today, adding that Huawei "has never collected or stored any Facebook user data."
Hua Chunying a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, declined to comment on the issue but said: "We hope the US can provide a fair, transparent, open and friendly environment for Chinese companies' operation and investment."