In what it presumably hopes will be see as swift and stern activity to inform and protect its exploiter , Facebook announcednew terms of serviceanda new data policyon Wednesday . Do n’t concern , though , it ’s not like the company has go piano in his war on privacy . It ’s just more explicitly arrest to the stuff people are already mad about .
The new price anddata policycame with a stiffly - give voice blog post from Facebook chief privacy policeman Erin Egan and deputy world-wide counselling Ashlie Beringer . “ We ’re form our full term and information insurance policy exculpated , without new right to use your data on Facebook , ” reads the newspaper headline . If the bullet note they provide about the additions are precise , Facebook has n’t so much radically changed its policies as much it has clarified on the dot how much of your digital life it lord over and why that ’s o.k. . Tellingly , the announcement post repeatedly accent how the new documents better “ explain , ” “ write out ” or “ make open ” Facebook ’s various old recitation .
TakeFacebook ’s habit of take in speech sound and text message history , for example . While Facebook says it has “ add up more specific information ” about the feature film , which is an opt - in experience for Facebook Lite and Messenger , the societal electronic connection is not function to stop doing it . Just last week , Facebookdefended the practicein the face of a public vociferation , claim that it “ help you line up and stick connect with the people you care about , and provides you with a better experience across Facebook . ” That vocalise interchangeable towhat Mark Zuckerberg said back 2007 , when Facebook became a political program that lease developers ramp up customs duty apps and accumulate Facebook substance abuser data . We all cognize from the Cambridge Analytica malicious gossip that sparked the most late Facebook crisis that there were some serious side effect to that strategy .
utter of Cambridge Analytica and third - political party developers , Facebook is still going to permit them gather and store drug user data . But there are rules . essentially , developer can track hoi polloi around the web and save data about who they are and what they ’re doing , but they need the users ’ permission to do so . For instance , developers can collectFacebook account data — name , email , sexuality , natal day , current metropolis , and profile picture universal resource locator — and then store it , even if they intercept using the Facebook platform . But they take the drug user ’ license . As we get it on from the Cambridge Analytica debacle , however , plentitude of Facebook users give unknown developers permission to do all kinds of softheaded things without realizing the implications .
So Facebook ’s data point insurance policy still allows a tremendous amount of tracking . Just calculate at this snippet from the top of the Facebook Platform Policy , which contains 23 different features and is just one part of the much enceinte data point policy . Itsaysthat developer must :
Obtain enough consent from people before using any Facebook technology that allows us to collect and process data about them , admit for case , our SDKs and web browser app pel . When you apply such applied science , provide an appropriate disclosure :
a. That third parties , including Facebook , may use cookie , vane beacons , and other memory technology to collect or receive information from your websites , apps and elsewhere on the internet and habituate that information to supply measurement service , target ads and as delineate in ourData Policy
Again , you have to penetrate through several Page of insurance policy to get to this point of granular detail . It ’s there , but I would barely describe it as easy - to - find or wanton - to - read .
Both the new terms and the new data policy just dropped , so we ’ll want to spend more time sorting through them to see what variety of meaningful change are in there . If what Facebook promises is dead on target , we should at least have a picayune more limpidity about how Facebook uses its data . If the sheer size and mazy layout of the insurance policy are any indication of the company ’s future , though , it ’s unvoiced to think that Facebook is making freehanded changes in the face of a big job . So far , it just seems like more of the same tricks in a slightly different package .
Cambridge Analyticadata privacyFacebookMark ZuckerbergSecurity
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