Facebook gave 61 companies, including Airtel and Saavn, six-month access to user data

 Airtel and Reliance Jio's music app partner Saavn and 58 ather  are among companies that could have had access to data of social media  major Facebook, according to the submissions made by the US-based firm  to the Congress. 

 Since inception, Facebook has allowed third-party apps like Saavn to  access - said to be with consent - wide-ranging data about friends of  users who signed up for the service. This data access was, however,  blocked from 2015. Yet, Saavn and the other firms were given extra time  to become compliant with the social networking giant’s  restrictive API policy and new rules around data privacy and prevent  abuse. Why these particular companies were singled out and given  one-time exemption is not known.