These are the changes Facebook is making to your account after the data privacy scandal
Is this enough to satisfy your concerns?
In the wake of a barrage of criticism over the Cambridge Analytica data breach and widespread calls to #deletefacebook, bosses at the social media giant have finally announced some steps to begin to reassure users about the safety of their accounts.
Erin Egan, Facebook’s Chief Privacy Officer and Ashlie Beringer, the company’s Deputy General Counsel, outlined the measures in a blog post yesterday called ‘It’s Time to Make Our Privacy Tools Easier to Find’.
They said in the post: “Last week showed how much more work we need to do to enforce our policies and help people understand how Facebook works and the choices they have over their data. 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.
“So in addition to Mark Zuckerberg’s announcements last week – cracking down on abuse of the Facebook platform, strengthening our policies, and making it easier for people to revoke apps’ ability to use your data – we’re taking additional steps in the coming weeks to put people more in control of their privacy.”
Here’s what they announced:
1. Controls that are easier to find and use
The settings menu on mobile devices has been redesigned to make things easier to find. Instead of having settings spread across nearly 20 different screens, they’re now accessible from a single place.
2. New Privacy Shortcuts menu
The new Privacy Shortcuts is a menu where you can control your data, with explanations of how the controls work. From here you can: make your account more secure; control your personal information; control the ads you see; and manage who sees your posts and profile information.
3. Tools to find, download and delete your Facebook data
The Access Your Information section is a way for people to access and manage their information, such as posts, reactions, comments, and things you’ve searched for. You can go here to delete anything from your timeline or profile that you no longer want on Facebook.
Whether this will be enough to stem the flow of criticism and ultimately save the social network remains to be seen.
Read more: It’s not just Facebook – here’s what data your other favourite apps are tracking
(Image: Getty)
