CNN:
Russian technology conglomerate Mail.Ru Group had the ability to access to information including users' names as well as their genders, birthdays, locations, and likes on Facebook, a source briefed on the investigation into the misuse of Facebook data told CNN.
Facebook told CNN on Tuesday that apps developed by the Mail.Ru Group were being looked at as part of the company's wider investigation into the misuse of Facebook user data in light of the Cambridge Analytica scandal.
Mail.Ru Group developed hundreds of Facebook apps, some of which were test apps that were not made public, Facebook said.
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Mail.Ru said less than 10% of its Facebook app users were in the US. However, because of how Facebook apps worked prior to 2015, users of the apps outside the US could have also exposed the Facebook details of their Facebook friends in the US.
Michael Carpenter, a former U.S. deputy assistant secretary of defense with responsibility for Russia, told CNN that the information Mail.Ru collected on Americans could then have been scooped up by Russia's domestic spy agency, the FSB, which can get access to information held by Russian Internet and communications companies, including Mail.Ru.
"What this means is that all data that Facebook users shared through this agreement with Mail.Ru is now available to the Russian intelligence services. All of it. And that is incredibly troubling," Carpenter said.
"Mail.Ru is a large Russian company. It has to abide by Russia's laws. It has to do what the intelligence services demand of it, and in this case they demand that they provide access to all of their data."
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Mail.Ru told CNN Wednesday that it is cooperating with Facebook for its investigation.
In 2014 Facebook announced that it would restrict developers' access to data on app users' friends by May 2015.
However, Facebook told CNN it granted two Mail.Ru apps an extension of two weeks beyond that deadline.
Read More: Russian company could have accessed Facebook data on millions of Americans, source says (CNN)