Facebook's shared user data with select companies

Facebook shared personal information culled from its users' profiles with other companies after the date when executives have said the social network prevented third-party developers from gaining access to the data, the company confirmed today.

The records included information about the friends of Facebook users, including phone numbers and breakdowns analysing the degrees of separation between people on the social networks, according to a Wall Street Journal report.

Facebook confirmed the report, acknowledging the information was given to a "small number" of companies including RBC Capital Markets and Nissan Motor Co., advertisers and other business partners.

The companies had access to the data during a stretch of time in 2015 after Facebook had locked out most developers who build apps that work on its social network. Facebook gave select "whitelisted" companies extensions before they were also blocked from getting its users' personal information.

Those extensions expired before the end of 2015, Facebook said. The company believes the previously unreported extensions with a select group of companies is consistent with previous statements that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has made, including in testimony to Congress, about shielding its users' personal information from third parties since 2015.