Facebook shared user data with four Chinese phone manufacturers, including Huawei, which US intelligence experts have branded a 'national security threat'.

The social network acknowledged the handset makers — Huawei, Lenovo, Oppo and TCL — were among the 60 companies it had shared data with as early as 2007.

Huawei was singled-out by the FBI director earlier this year, who said he was 'deeply concerned' its handsets have the 'capacity to conduct undetected espionage' on behalf of the Chinese government.

Facebook allowed Huawei and other manufacturers access to user data to enable social media features, like Facebook Messenger, on their devices.

These Facebook 'experiences' were used as a stop-gap until the social network could build a designated mobile app for the manufacturers' operating system.

Facebook will now wind down its dealings with Huawei, the Californian company confirmed in a statement to The New York Times.

The latest flagship smartphone from Huawei, the P20 Pro, has three separate lens to enable 3x optical zoom and low-light photography. Huawei smartphones were banned from sale in all retail outlets on US military bases earlier this year over security fears

Huawei is the third largest smartphone manufacturer in the world.

The Shenzhen-based company has enjoyed huge success with its Android-powered smartphones, including the triple-camera touting P20 Pro, which launched back in March, and its exclusive £1,499 ($1,225) Porsche-design Mate handset.

However, US security officials have branded the company a 'national security threat'.

The Pentagon ordered all retail outlets on US military bases to stop selling Huawei branded smartphones in May after the US Department of Defence said using the handsets would pose an ‘unacceptable risk to the department’s personnel, information and mission’.

FBI Director Chris Wray said the government was ‘deeply concerned about the risks of allowing any company or entity that is beholden to foreign governments that don’t share our values to gain positions of power inside our telecommunications networks.’

Wray added this would provide ‘the capacity to maliciously modify or steal information. And it provides the capacity to conduct undetected espionage.’

The deal with Facebook enabled Huawei to access social media users’ work and education history, relationship status, friends and likes.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg pictured testifying to a US House Committee about how the company handles users' private data. The company has since confirmed it shared data with Chinese smartphone manufacturer Huawei

WHY ARE HUAWEI AND ZTE CONSIDERED A ‘NATIONAL SECURITY THREAT’? Huawei P20 Pro (pictured) is the latest flagship phone from the Shenzhen-based company, which is now the third largest smartphone manufacturer in the world The heads of the FBI, CIA, NSA, and the director of US National Intelligence, have warned against the use of Huawei and ZTE smartphones. Elsewhere, the Pentagon ordered all retail outlets on US military bases to stop selling Huawei and ZTE branded smartphones. FBI director Chris Wray said the government was ‘deeply concerned about the risks of allowing any company or entity that is beholden to foreign governments that don’t share our values to gain positions of power inside our telecommunications networks.’ These concerns stem from the fact that both Huawei and ZTE have demonstrable links to the Chinese government. Huawei founder and president Ren Zhengfei had a successful military career in China's People's Liberation Army (PLA), and ZTE has close financial ties to the Chinese government. Other Chinese companies such as Lenovo, Xiaomi, and Oppo do not have the same ties and as such, haven't drawn the same scrutiny from US politicians. ‘Huawei is effectively an arm of the Chinese government, and it's more than capable of stealing information from U.S. officials by hacking its devices," Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton said earlier this year. ‘There are plenty of other companies that can meet our technology needs, and we shouldn't make it any easier for China to spy on us’. However, there has yet to be any public evidence that Huawei or ZTE products could endanger the privacy or digital security of consumers. Huawei and ZTE both dispute claims from the US government they pose a threat to national security. A spokesperson for Huawei said: 'Huawei is aware of a range of US government activities seemingly aimed at inhibiting Huawei’s business in the US market. 'Huawei is trusted by governments and customers in 170 countries worldwide and poses no greater cybersecurity risk than any ICT vendor, sharing as we do common global supply chains and production capabilities.' In a statement, ZTE said: ‘As a publicly traded company, we are committed to adhering to all applicable laws and regulations of the United States, work with carriers to pass strict testing protocols, and adhere to the highest business standards. ‘ZTE takes cybersecurity and privacy seriously and remains a trusted partner to our US suppliers, US customers and the people who use our products.’ Advertisement

Facebook vice president of mobile partnerships Francisco Varela said access to user data was granted to the company in a ‘controlled’ manner.

However, vice chairman of the senate select committee on intelligence, US Senator Mark Warner called for assurances that Facebook data was not transferred to Chinese servers.

‘Concerns about Huawei aren't new,’ he said.

‘I look forward to learning more about how Facebook ensured that information about their users was not sent to Chinese servers.’

Contracts with phone manufacturers had tight limits on what could be done with users’ data, and ‘approved experiences’ were reviewed by engineers and managers before being deployed, Facebook said in a statement.

The company said it is not aware of any privacy abuse of user data as a result of the deal with Huawei.

Facebook VP Varela said: ‘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.’

Earlier this week it emerged that Facebook has shared user data with 60 different smartphone manufacturers.

The social network says it cut data-sharing deals with hardware manufacturers as it was unable to keep up with demand for mobile apps.

Since almost every handset maker had its own proprietary operating system, Facebook would have needed to build a specific version of the app for each firm.

To solve this problem, the social network allowed device manufacturers access to user data to enable them to build the Facebook 'experiences' themselves.

Facebook maintains the deals it cut with smartphone manufacturers, like Huawei, were 'very different' from the type of public interfaces that allowed Cambridge Analytica to harvest data on millions of users

WHY DID FACEBOOK HAVE DATA DEALS WITH PHONE MAKERS? Facebook has shared user data with phone manufacturers since 2007. The social network had deals with 60 companies, including a number of household names, like Apple, Microsoft, Samsung, Blackberry, and Amazon, which allowed them to access users' social network data with permission. Facebook says it cut data-sharing deals with hardware manufacturers because it couldn't keep up with demand for its mobile app. Since almost every handset maker had its own proprietary operating system, Facebook would have needed to build a specific version of the app for each firm. To solve this problem, Facebook allowed device manufacturers themselves access to user data so they could build the Facebook 'experiences' for their individual platform. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg (pictured) and his team signed deals with 60 companies, including Microsoft, Samsung, Blackberry, and Amazon, because it was unable to keep up with demand for its mobile app 'In the early days of mobile, the demand for Facebook outpaced our ability to build versions of the product that worked on every phone or operating system,' said Ime Archibong, Facebook VP of Product Partnerships. ‘To bridge this gap, we built a set of device-integrated APIs that allowed companies to recreate Facebook-like experiences for their individual devices or operating systems.' Facebook says it tightly controlled how companies could use the data available via these APIs. ‘Given that these APIs enabled other companies to recreate the Facebook experience, we controlled them tightly from the get-go,' Archibong said. ‘These partners signed agreements that prevented people’s Facebook information from being used for any other purpose than to recreate Facebook-like experiences.' Since most modern smartphones run on either iOS or Android, Facebook is able to keep up with the demand. As such, it recently announcement to developers that it would be winding down access to device-integrated APIs. According to Archibong, 22 of the partnerships have already ended. Advertisement

'In the early days of mobile, the demand for Facebook outpaced our ability to build versions of the product that worked on every phone or operating system,' Ime Archibong, Facebook VP of Product Partnerships, said in a company blog post.

'It's hard to remember now but back then there were no app stores.

'So companies like Facebook, Google, Twitter and YouTube had to work directly with operating system and device manufacturers to get their products into people’s hands. This took a lot of time — and Facebook was not able to get to everyone.

‘To bridge this gap, we built a set of device-integrated APIs that allowed companies to recreate Facebook-like experiences for their individual devices or operating systems.

‘Over the last decade, around 60 companies have used them — including many household names such as Amazon, Apple, Blackberry, HTC, Microsoft and Samsung.

‘Given that these APIs enabled other companies to recreate the Facebook experience, we controlled them tightly from the get-go.

‘These partners signed agreements that prevented people’s Facebook information from being used for any other purpose than to recreate Facebook-like experiences.'

Archibong insists these device interfaces are 'very different' from the type of public interfaces that allowed Cambridge Analytica to harvest data on millions of users.

For example, Apple said it had previously used the software interfaces to allow iPhone users to post photos to Facebook without opening the app.

BlackBerry claims access was only used to give its customers access to Facebook and Facebook Messenger.

Huawei has specified how it used the device-integrated APIs.

On 24 April, a matter of weeks after CEO Mark Zuckerberg testified to Congress about user privacy, Facebook told developers that it was winding down the scheme.

According to Archibong, 22 of the partnerships have already ended.

Huawei disputes claims from the US government that it could pose a threat to national security.

A spokesperson for the company said: 'Huawei is aware of a range of US government activities seemingly aimed at inhibiting Huawei’s business in the US market.

'Huawei is trusted by governments and customers in 170 countries worldwide and poses no greater cybersecurity risk than any ICT vendor, sharing as we do common global supply chains and production capabilities.'