Huawei has a close relationship with the Chinese government.
Facebook has a data-sharing partnership with four Chinese firms, including one previously flagged as a security threat by U. S. intelligence.
Earlier this week it was reported that Facebook had given its user data to up to 60 device makers, including giants like Apple, Samsung and Microsoft, over the last decade. This allowed those device makers to improve access to Facebook on their products at a time when Facebook’s mobile app was still developing.
In return, Facebook provided device makers with users’ personal information and their friends’ personal information, including political leanings, relationship status, and events they planned to attend.
All this is bad enough, but then, on Tuesday The New York Times reported that those data-sharing partnerships included the Chinese firms Huawei, Oppo, TCL, and Lenovo.
The fact that Huawei was sharing data is of particular concern, since a 2012 House Intelligence Committee report warned that Chinese telecom firms Huawei and ZTE posed a security threat to the United States, partly due to their cushy relationships with the Chinese government. The panel also warned that it had credible intelligence that Huawei had a history of bribery, corruption, and copyright infringement.
“If I were an American company today… and you are looking at Huawei, I would find another vendor,” former U. S. Rep. Mike Rodgers (R – MI) told 60 Minutes at the time.
