Meta rewrites privacy policy but says it won't collect data in 'new ways'

As is sometimes the case, the company formerly known as Facebook has made a new amendment to its Terms of Service and updated its Privacy Policy. The old Facebook data policy is now Meta's privacy policy, rewritten "to make it easier to understand and reflect the latest products we offer."

With this amendment, Meta "is not collecting, using or sharing your data in new ways based on this policy update and we still do not sell your information," according to the company. Instead, this update changes the language and adds examples to help people understand what each segment is about.

After reading the new policy and comparing it to the old policy, it seems to hold, for better or worse. John Davison, senior counsel at the Center for Electronic Privacy Information, said in a comment to The Verge that the promise that this policy will not share data in new ways sounds good, but "the problem is that Facebook is already industrializing user data." doing." It's funneled into a huge targeted advertising ecosystem. So the status quo is not good for privacy."

Meta has taken initiatives over the years (for example, in 2014 and 2018) to make its policies simpler and easier to read more than once, and this layout may be the best thing they've ever done, But as much as it helps people understand what they agree with—it can help more meta. Including examples helps prevent misunderstandings and misinterpretations of the rules, such as the incident in 2012 with an update to Instagram's Terms of Service, when people thought the service would suddenly start selling everyone's photos.

Making the point that "even the most explicit privacy policy is not a substitute for enforceable privacy rights or legal limits on data processing," Davison called it simply "unrealistic" to think that Facebook Users can understand what they agree on at 9,000. -Word Agreement including dozens of nested menus covering various settings and scenarios.

The new policy applies to Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and other Meta products, but not to WhatsApp, Workplace, Messenger Kids or Quest devices used without a Facebook account (they have their own privacy policies). Information on policies for non-users that may relate to their information collected in "Shadow Profiles" is listed here.

Meta is also rolling out new audience controls on Facebook that change who can see the posts you make. The tool used by default for the audience setting you've recently used, whether it's Public, Friends (+ friends of anyone tagged), Only Me, or a custom selection of people you're interested in You can show or hide posts. Now, whatever default selection you have in your settings, it will be the first one for every new post you make, even if you used something else on your previous one.