Facebook Parent Meta Revamps Privacy Policy, Releases New Tools

Facebook collects a trove of data about its nearly 3 billion monthly active users, but people trying to understand how that information gets used or shared have to read a lengthy privacy policy that can be a chore to digest.

On Thursday, the social network’s parent company, Meta, said it redesigned and reworded its privacy policy to make it easier for users to read. Before, Facebook’s privacy policy included larger chunks of text. Now more videos, subheads and images split up the text, which also includes shorter sentences and more examples. 

Facebook users will receive a notification about the changes when they go into effect on July 26. They’ll also see a notice displayed at the top of their feed that says the company updated its privacy policy and terms of service. Meta said the updates are for Facebook, Instagram and Messenger. Other Meta-owned apps, such as WhatsApp, Workplace or Messenger Kids, have their own privacy policies, Meta said.

Meta is also releasing new privacy tools, including a way to select a default audience for who can see a user’s Facebook’s post. People can select who can see their posts, such as the public, friends or only themselves. Previously, the default audience was whatever users had most recently chosen. So if you decided to set your post to public, then the next post would by default be public, unless you changed the setting. People will also be able to use a single control to see ad topics or interests on Facebook and Instagram. 

The updates showcase how Facebook is trying to make it clearer to people what data it collects and shares with advertisers. The changes, though, don’t mean Facebook is collecting any more or less data about its users. Facebook has faced several privacy scandals that have raised concerns that the company isn’t doing enough to safeguard people’s privacy. This week, DigitalMiddle Washington, DC, Attorney General Karl Racine said he was suing over a 2018 data scandal in which political consultancy firm Cambridge Analytica harvested data from up to 87 million Facebook users without their consent. 

Facebook’s massive amount of user data is what allows advertisers to target potential customers based on location, interests and demographics. Some users, though, find the social network’s ad targeting creepy, leading to conspiracy theories that Facebook listens to its users’ conversations. Facebook has repeatedly denied these claims, but the privacy policy outlines what information Meta does collect from devices. For example, Meta collects data such as whether its app is in the foreground on a device or if a user’s mouse is moving, a signal that could help the company distinguish bots from humans.

It’s unclear how many of Meta’s users currently read through the company’s lengthy privacy policy. Rob Sherman, Meta’s vice president and deputy chief privacy officer, said during a press conference that it’s challenging to build a privacy policy because regulators and lawmakers have been pushing for more details about what data companies collect from users. At the same time, including more details also means the policy gets longer and the length might dissuade people from diving into the document. 

«There is a tension between that and making it accessible, which is why we’re investing in these other efforts as well,» he said.

Other social networks are trying out different ways to get users to learn more about privacy. This year, Twitter released a that teaches users about its privacy policies.