Facebook To Relinquish Privacy Controls Back To The Users
After Facebook announced changes to the News Feed, the social giant is revamping its privacy settings. The social network in 2018 will facilitate users to manage their own data or privacy controls in light of new legislation that the European Union will enforce in May 2018.
The social media network is aiming for a new direction this year. It announced changes to the platform’s algorithm and supposedly the changes will focus on prioritizing updates users will see primarily from families or friends over any other piece of content shared on Facebook.
According to Reuters, the Chief Operating Officer, Sheryl Sandberg, revealed in Brussels what their new initiatives are for the company.
“We’re rolling out a new privacy center globally that will put the core privacy settings for Facebook in one place and make it much easier for people to manage their data,” Sandberg said at a Facebook event in Brussels on Tuesday.
As stated in the above analysis, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is data privacy rules that aim to give Europeans more control over their information and how companies utilize it. The measure was adopted by the European Parliament in April 2016 and replaced a data protection directive that dates back to 1995.
Companies, business or corporations who do not comply with the new requirements will face a maximum penalty of four percent of global annual turnover, or 20 million euros.
Facebook to hand privacy controls to users ahead of EU law https://t.co/Sj7h6W8iVf pic.twitter.com/P76VYt3YzO
— Reuters (@Reuters) January 23, 2018
Facebook has been for some time weathering criticism around fake news on its platform. As stated by Engadget, the recent tweaks to change the type of content users will see has not worked in some countries and has amplified the problem further.
With over two billion users, it has become difficult for the world’s large social channel to combat the spread of false news reports. In addition, these new measures adopted in the European Union come as no surprise. Facebook has come under investigation from several EU data protection authorities.
Facebook promises privacy reboot ahead of new #EU rules https://t.co/UxXM3ZtfoG
— EUobserver (@euobs) January 23, 2018
Sandberg emphasized that the company is making progress. It also promised to improve the user experience. Elsewhere, she said that because of the abuse present on the site they were going to double the number of people working on safety and security to 20,000 by the end of 2018.
During Monday’s presentation, Facebook admitted to another fundamental issue. The Guardian confirmed the company accepted the fact they had been too slow to realize it was causing harm to democracies across the globe.
https://www.facebook.com/trtworld/posts/2047179732218839
Facebook in 2018 is looking to leave behind old problems behind. In 2017 they were criticized for their inability to prevent Russian operatives to use the platform for the 2016 U.S presidential election. Finally, The New York Times report pointed out that the congressional hearings revealed the discrepancies and problems with the company’s advertising system.
