March, 2018

Facebook has claimed that an overhaul of its privacy tools is the answer to the problems faced by people trying to understand what personal data Facebook has on them, and how it uses that data. In a blog post which announces the changes,  Erin Egan, VP and Chief Privacy Officer, Policy and Ashlie Beringer, VP and Deputy General Counsel announce the changes Facebook will make to make things “easier to find”.

No mention is made to what they do with the data in the post, only that the policies, terms and conditions, and usability will all be changed in light of the recent public backlash and bad publicity Facebook have faced last week.

Facebook says the revamp was already planned ahead of the recent scandal in order to comply with new EU (GDPR) rules.

The post highlights changes such as how to:

• Make your account more secure;
• Control your personal information;
• Control the ads you see;
• Manage who sees your posts and profile information.

The blog post comes just days after CEO Mark Zuckerberg decides not to appear before an MP summons on data misuse at the business.

The UK Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee wrote to CEO Mark Zuckerberg on 20th March 2018 to summon him to explain how social media data is being used (or misused) for political advert targetting.

A Facebook spokesperson has said they will be sending its CTO or Chief Product Officer to answer questions instead.

“We have responded to Mr Collins and the DCMS and offered for two senior company representatives from our management team to meet with the Committee depending on timings most convenient for them.”

On 17th March, reports in the Observer of London and the New York Times claimed Cambridge Analytica, a UK political agency, was able to purchase data about 50 million Facebook users in 2015 to use for targeted political advertising.