Facebook has announced plans to give users more control over their information and make them better informed about privacy settings. This includes notifications and information about privacy settings and practices, additions to the Facebook Privacy Policy, and technical changes that give users more transparency and control over the info they provide to third-party apps.
Facebook’s announcement comes as a result of the company working with the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, which has provided Facebook with a number of recommendations.
“Our productive and constructive dialogue with the Commissioner’s office has given us an opportunity to improve our policies and practices in a way that will provide even greater transparency and control for Facebook users,” said Elliot Schrage, Vice-President of Global Communications and Public Policy at Facebook. “We believe that these changes are not only great for our users and address all of the Commissioners’ outstanding concerns, but they also set a new standard for the industry.”
Specific changes Facebook will be implementing include:
– Updating the Privacy Policy to better describe a number of practices, including the reasons for the collection of date of birth, account memorialization for deceased users, the distinction between account deactivation and deletion, and how its advertising programs work.
– Encouraging users to review their privacy settings to make sure the defaults and selections reflect the user’s preferences.
– Increasing the understanding and control a user has over the information accessed by third-party applications. Specifically, Facebook will introduce a new permissions model that will require applications to specify the categories of information they wish to access and obtain express consent from the user before any data is shared. In addition, the user will also have to specifically approve any access to their friends’ information, which would still be subject to the friend’s privacy and application settings.
“We strongly believe that the changes to the permission model for third-party applications will give users more confidence in Platform and will, thus, help ensure the long-term health and vitality of the ecosystem that has grown around Platform,” said Ethan Beard, Director of Platform Product Marketing at Facebook. “We will be communicating regularly with developers about the changes and we’re going to take our time to make sure the outcome is something users understand and that developers have ample time and notice to adapt.”
Facebook says work on the planned changes will begin immediately, although some of them will take a while to become visible. They have to worry about things like updating and testing the new Facebook API and third-party developers reprogramming and testing their own apps. Facebook anticipates the whole process will take about a year.
