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Facebook Denies It Let Other Tech Companies Misuse Personal Data

The New York Times reported Tuesday that Facebook for many years gave more than 150 companies extensive access to personal data — including private messages and contact information for users' friends

Facebook denied Tuesday night that its dozens of "partners" — companies like Microsoft, Amazon, Netflix, Spotify and Yahoo — were able to misuse Facebook users' personal data, NBC News reported

The company, however, didn't address explosive new allegations that it gave those companies far broader access to private data than it has previously acknowledged. The New York Times reported Tuesday that Facebook for many years gave more than 150 companies extensive access to personal data, including private messages and contact information for users' friends, than was previously known and without users' explicit consent.

The Times said it based its reporting on more than 270 pages of internal Facebook documents and interviews with more than 50 former employees of Facebook and its so-called integration partners, as well as other former government officials and privacy advocates.

Facebook has said it is ending the "integration partnerships," some of which the Times reported extend as far back as 2010 and some of which were still in effect this year.

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