Russian Company Had Ability to Hack Facebook Data of Millions of Americans Russian technology conglomerate Mail.Ru Group is an internet company with links to the Kremlin. The company had the ability to access Facebook users' names as well as their genders, birthdays, locations, and likes. Mail.Ru Group developed hundreds of Facebook apps The apps developed by the Mail.Ru Group are being looked at as part of Facebook's wider investigation into the misuse of user data. Prior to 2015, in some cases, the developer not only received data about that user but also about the users' friends. Mail.Ru said less than 10 percent of its Facebook app users were in the US. But prior to 2015, users of the apps outside the U.S. could have also exposed the Facebook details of their Facebook friends in the U.S. Michael Carpenter, former U.S. deputy assistant secretary of defense, to CNN