Facebook Tries To Explain Its New Privacy Policy Rules
Facebook is proposing updates to its terms, data policy, and cookies policy to reflect new features the company is working on, and it trying to explaining how the service works through Privacy Basics. The updated to Facebook's terms, data policy and cookies policy and will be free for commenting and suggestions for seven days, Facebook says.
With Privacy Basics, Facebook is giving users tips and a how-to guide for taking charge of your experience on Facebook. It offers information on how the service works in simpler language, including a new animated dashboard that attempts to answer common questions like about untagging, unfriending, and blocking, and how to choose an audience for your posts. This information is available in 36 languages.
The updated policies inlcude information on how Facebook gets location information depending on the features someone decides to use. People check into their favorite places and use optional features like Nearby Friends. Facebook plans to soon show users relevant information based on where they are and what their friends are up to. For example, in the future, if users share their locations, they might see menus from restaurants nearby or updates from friends in the area.
In some regions, Facebook is testing a Buy button that helps people discover and purchase products without leaving Facebook. The company is also working on new ways to make transactions more convenient and secure.
Through the new rules, Facebook is also asking for permission to use phones' locations to offer optional features like check-ins or adding users' location to posts.
Facebook is also explaining how its different companies and apps work together, as it collects information to improve "users' experience." For example, Facebook information can be used to recover a lost password for Instagram.
But noticeably absent from the new privacy explanations is the fact that Facebook users have very little control over how their information is used in advertising. The company asserts the right to use anything you do on Facebook to help it target ads to you, both on and off the service. Facebook even tracks what you do on other websites and will use that information for advertising, too, unless you explicitly opt out of the extra tracking.
The new Privacy Basics tutorial encourages you to take advantage of Facebooks Ad Preferences tool, which allows you to tell the company what topics you are interested in so that you get more ads on those topics.