Page 24 - ARUBA TODAY

A24 TECHNOLOGY
Thursday 5 april 2018
Facebook revamps privacy policy in heels of scandal

By BARBARA ORTUTAY with looser privacy laws —
AP Technology Writer such as the U.S., for exam-
NEW YORK (AP) — Face- ple. Facebook has always
book's new privacy policy had regional differences in
aims to explain the data policies, and the new doc-
it gathers on users more ument makes that clearer.
clearly — but doesn't actu- The new policy also makes
ally change what it collects it clear that WhatsApp
and shares. and Instagram are part of
The company unveiled the Facebook and abide by
revisions Wednesday as it the same privacy policy as
faces one of its worst pri- their parent. The two were
vacy scandals in history. Al- not mentioned in the pre-
though Facebook says the vious policy. While What-
changes aren't prompted sApp still doesn't show ad-
by recent events or tighter vertisements, Instagram
privacy rules coming from long has, and the policy
the EU, it's an opportune consolidation could be a
time. CEO Mark Zuckerberg sign of things to come for
is also set to testify before WhatsApp as well.
Congress next week for the Other changes incorpo-
first time. rate some of the restric-
As Facebook evolved from tions Facebook previously
a closed, Harvard-only net- announced on what third-
work with no ads to a giant party apps can collect
corporation with $40 bil- from users and their friends.
lion in advertising revenue For example, Facebook
and huge subsidiaries like says it will remove devel-
Instagram and WhatsApp, opers' access to people's
its privacy policy has also data if the person has
shifted — over and over. not used the app in three
Almost always, critics say, In this June 24, 2016, file photo, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg at the Global Entrepreneur Sum- months. Access by apps
the changes meant a mit at Stanford University in Stanford, Calif. is under scrutiny following
move away from protect- Associated Press allegations that political
ing user privacy toward consulting firm Cambridge
pushing openness and collects people's contact were surprised to learn re- Facebook also adds clari- Analytica improperly ob-
more sharing. On the other information if they choose cently that Facebook had fication that local laws tained data on millions of
hand, regulatory and user to "upload, sync or im- been collecting informa- could affect what it does Facebook users through an
pressure has sometimes port" this to the service. This tion about whom they text- with "sensitive" data on app that claimed to be a
led Facebook to pull back may include users' address ed or called and for how people, such as informa- research tool.
on its data collection and books on their phones, as long, though not the ac- tion about a user's race or The policy changes come a
use and to explain things well as their call logs and tual contents of text mes- ethnicity, health, political week after Facebook gave
in plainer language — in text histories. The new poli- sages. It seemed to have views or even trade union its privacy settings a make-
contrast to dense legal- cy says Facebook may use been done without explicit membership. This and other over. The company tried to
ese from many other inter- this data to help "you and consent, though Facebook information, the new policy make it easier to navigate
net companies. Among others find people you may says it collected such data states, "could be subject to its complex and often con-
Wednesday's changes: know." The previous policy only from Android users special protections under fusing privacy and security
Facebook has added a did not mention call logs or who specifically allowed the laws of your country." settings, though the make-
section explaining that it text histories. Several users it to do so — for instance, But it means the company over didn't change what
by agreeing to permissions is unlikely to apply stricter Facebook collects and
when installing Facebook. protections to countries shares either.
Those who followed Face-
book's privacy gaffes over
the years may feel a sense
of familiarity. Over and
over, the company — of-
ten Zuckerberg — owned
up to missteps and prom-
ised changes. In 2009, the
company announced that
it was consolidating six pri-
vacy pages and more than
30 settings on to a single
privacy page. Yet, some-
how, the company said last
week that users still had to
go to 20 different places to
access all of their privacy
controls and it was chang-
ing this so the controls will
be accessible from a single
place.q