Facebook Gave “2-Week Special Access” To A Russian Tech Giant, Says Report

Facebook is once again under the fire since Cambridge Analytica scandal. It allegedly allowed a Russian internet conglomerate to access user data by granting it a special two-week extension past the stop date in May 2015.

Facebook claimed that it made changes in its API to stop apps from collecting data on their users’ friends by 2015. However, some apps had access beyond that point too.

Over a month ago, another news of Facebook giving data access to nearly 60 companies had surfaced. Among these companies, the Russian company Mail.Ru was also listed.

Facebook told CNN that Mail.Ru developed “hundreds of Facebook apps,” out of which two apps were granted a two-week extension past the cut-off date in 2015.

This may have allowed the Russian company to gather friends data from Facebook users – which the company was supposed to put an end to.

According to news reports, Mail.Ru has longstanding ties with the Kremlin. The fact that Yuri Milner, founder of Mail.Ru, is a major investor in Facebook and this new revelation seems to have kicked the hornet’s nest again.

Now the top Democrats on the Senate and House intelligence committees in the US want further scrutiny on this relationship between Mail.Ru and Facebook.

In its defense, Facebook said that the motive behind granting the extension was to allow them to “come into compliance” with the newly enforced rules.

The social media giant also told CNN that it is looking into these apps as part of its investigation of user data misuse in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal – which leaked 87 million Facebook users’ data.

But according to Facebook, no evidence has been found yet that could prove Mail.Ru misused user data.

Also Read: Android P Name Leaks And It’s Totally Not What We Expected