Facebook has admitted that the company gave dozens of tech companies and app developers special access to its users' data after publicly saying it had restricted outside companies to access such data back in 2015.
It's an unusual clear view of how the largest social networking site manages your personal information.
During the
Cambridge Analytica scandal revealed March this year, Facebook stated that it already cut off third-party access to its users' data and their friends in May 2015 only.
However, in a 747-page long document [
PDF] delivered to Congress late Friday, the social networking giant admitted that it continued
sharing data with 61 hardware and software makers, as well as app developers after 2015 as well.
The disclosure comes in response to hundreds of questions posed to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg by members of Congress in April about its
company's practices with data of its billions of users.
The Washington Post reported that the company submitted the documents, representing Facebook's most granular explanation of exemption, within hours of a Friday night deadline.
Among other things, the documents revealed that Facebook granted a "one-time" six-month extension to 61 companies including AOL, Nike, United Parcel Service and dating app Hinge to come into compliance with Facebook's new privacy policy on user data.
Besides this, there are at least five other companies that theoretically may have accessed limited friends’ data, as a result of API access that they were granted as part of a Facebook beta test, the social media added.
The documents also acknowledged that Facebook partnered with 52 domestic and international companies, including U.S. tech giants Apple, Microsoft, Spotify, Amazon, Sony, Acer, China-based Huawei and Alibaba, and device-makers Samsung and BlackBerry.