Facebook unveils privacy changes in bid to become more transparent after Cambridge Analytica scrutiny
Facebook said today it will be making its privacy tools easier to find in a bid to boost transparency and improve trust after last week’s furore over the revelations involving Cambridge Analytica.
The firm has been embroiled in controversy with Facebook over allegedly using the personal data of 50m users to influence the 2016 US presidential election.
Facebook said today it has redesigned its settings menu on mobile phones to make things easier to find, and updated settings to make it clear what information can and cannot be shared with apps.
Read more: Tesla billionaire Elon Musk has deleted his brands from Facebook
The firm has also created a privacy shortcuts menu to allow users to control their data in “just a few taps” with simpler explanations of how Facebook controls work.
Facebook said from here, people can make their accounts more secure with more layers of protection added such as two-factor authentication. They can also control the ads they see and review what they have shared.
A tool called Access Your Information is also being rolled out for people to find, download and delete their Facebook data.
The tech behemoth said today that the recent scrutiny had showed how much more work it needed to do to enforce its policies. A blog post by Erin Egan, vice president and chief privacy officer, policy, and Ashlie Beringer, vice president and deputy general counsel said:
We’ve heard loud and clear that privacy settings and other important tools are too hard to find and that we must do more to keep people informed.
Additional steps Facebook is taking in the coming weeks will help users be “more in control of their privacy”. Facebook said most of the updates had been in the works for some time, but recent events had emphasised their importance.
Egan and Beringer added:
It’s also our responsibility to tell you how we collect and use your data in language that’s detailed, but also easy to understand. In the coming weeks, we’ll be proposing updates to Facebook’s terms of service that include our commitments to people.
We’ll also update our data policy to better spell out what data we collect and how we use it.
These updates are about transparency – not about gaining new rights to collect, use, or share data.
Read more: The chief executive of Cambridge Analytica has been suspended