A New York Times report suggesting Facebook, Inc. (Nasdaq: FB ) has a long history of sharing user data with some of the world's biggest companies has the stock trading down 0.5 percent on Monday. The new report may increase the regulatory heat on Facebook, but analysts say the latest data crackdown in Europe may actually be adding to Facebook's dominance.

The Times reports that Facebook has had at least 60 partnerships to share user data with third-party companies without explicit consent over the past 10 years. Apple ( AAPL ), Amazon.com ( AMZN ), Microsoft Corp. ( MSFT ) and Samsung Electronics are reportedly among the companies who gained access to Facebook user data.

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Data that was shared reportedly included personal information such as relationship status, political tendencies, education history, religion and upcoming events.

In a blog post on Sunday night, Facebook vice president of product partnerships Ime Archibong defended the partnerships and said many of them came about during the early days of smartphones, when there were no app stores. Facebook was working with device manufacturers on ways to get its product on users' devices. Part of this process involved creating device-integrated application programming interfaces.

"Given that these APIs enabled other companies to recreate the Facebook experience, we controlled them tightly from the get-go," Archibong writes. "These partners signed agreements that prevented people's Facebook information from being used for any other purpose than to recreate Facebook-like experiences."

Facebook has faced intense regulatory scrutiny so far this year after acknowledging that Cambridge Analytica gained unauthorized access to the personal data of millions of Facebook users during the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign. Last month, Europe imposed the General Data Protection Regulation, a new set of online privacy rules requiring companies like Facebook to gain a much higher level of consent before collecting user data or using it for targeted advertising.

MKM Partners analyst Rob Sanderson says the GDPR may actually be helping internet advertising giants Facebook and Alphabet ( GOOG , GOOGL ) gain even more of an edge over the competition.

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"It could be an unintended consequence that privacy regulation squeezes marginal players and drives even more share consolidation into the duopoly," Sanderson recently said, according to MarketWatch.

So far, regulatory actions haven't impacted Facebook's business. The company reported large earnings and revenue beats in the first quarter, and FB stock is up 9.1 percent year-to-date.

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