Facebook details privacy tools it’s introducing due to EU law
Facebook has detailed changes to make it easier for people to manage their data on the social network. The innovations are a result of the new European privacy legislation that comes into effect in May.
Facebook says there will be an opportunity to download a copy of their data or move it to another service. In the announcement of the new measures, the social network shows a screen on which user data is grouped by subject. It seems that it will be possible for users to view data that they have shared with Facebook per subject. This concerns, for example, activity on different parts of the social network.
Currently, users can download their data from Facebook by clicking a button in the General menu. That data is then collected and users receive an email when it is ready to be downloaded.
New overview with all data and activities that users share with Facebook
The privacy settings menu on mobile devices has been made simpler. According to Facebook, the settings can now be found in one place instead of on twenty different screens. There will be Privacy Shortcut menus, which should provide quick access to setting additional layers of security and give users insight into what personal information they are sharing. Advertising preferences can also be viewed and adjusted in this way.
The old account settings menu (left) next to the new version
Facebook indicates that most of the changes mentioned have been in development for some time, but that recent events “underline their importance”. The social network is referring to the revelations surrounding the British company Cambridge Analytica, which relatively easily managed to obtain data from fifty million Facebook users. The scandal has made Facebook the subject of investigation in the US and Europe.
In January, Facebook already announced that users would get new privacy tools because of the new EU legislation. The details that the social network now provides are part of that. Facebook has worked with regulatory authorities and privacy experts on the new tools.
Furthermore, Facebook says it is working on changes to its terms and conditions. The new conditions should indicate more clearly what data Facebook collects and what it is used for. The social network emphasizes that the renewals to the conditions are intended to increase transparency and not to obtain new rights to the use of data.