Facebook’s entire announcement is pretty passive-aggressive. On the surface, it does seem like Facebook wants to help you improve your privacy and even help you limit the kind of data it collects about you. But in practice, Facebook’s “body language” tells us a different story: Facebook would love it if you didn’t change anything.
It doesn’t take too long until your eyes start to roll while reading Facebook’s announcement: As soon as GDPR was finalized, we realized it was an opportunity to invest even more heavily in privacy.
In other words, it doesn’t look like Facebook would have been as eager to “invest even more heavily in privacy” if it weren’t for the EU’s GDPR push, not to mention the Cambridge Analytica mess. Facebook does say that going forward, users will be able to choose whether their data can be used for improved ads targeting — there’s no option to shut off data collection, I’m afraid.
Facebook will also let you modify sensitive information in your profile, including political, religious, and relationship information. You can already do that, but Facebook says it’s making it easier for users to delete this info.
Finally, Facebook is about to reintroduce facial recognition in Europe and Canada after having removed the feature many years ago. Facebook says the feature is entirely optional, which makes sense considering the uproar it caused. In the US for example, Facebook is facing a facial recognition-related class action suit that could hurt its bottom line significantly:
We’re not asking for new rights to collect, use or share your data on Facebook, and we continue to commit that we do not sell information about you to advertisers or other partners. While the substance of our data policy is the same globally, people in the EU will see specific details relevant only to people who live there, like how to contact our Data Protection Officer under GDPR. We want to be clear that there is nothing different about the controls and protections we offer around the world. – READ MORE
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