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Facebook to Update Privacy Policy, but Adjusting Settings Is No Easier


    By Vindu Goel

   August 29, 2013 7:53 pm August 29, 2013 7:53 pm (BUTTON)
   Photo
   Facebook is making it more clear that it uses a variety of personal
   data about its 1.2 billion users to deliver advertising.
   Facebook is making it more clear that it uses a variety of personal
   data about its 1.2 billion users to deliver advertising.Credit Dado
   Ruvic/Reuters

   Facebook announced Thursday that it planned to enact changes to its
   privacy policies on Sept. 5.

   But the social network’s famously difficult privacy controls will not
   become any easier to navigate.

   Mostly, the new data use policy and statement of rights and
   responsibilities lay out more clearly the things that Facebook already
   does with your personal information, Ed Palmieri, the company’s
   associate general counsel for privacy, said in an interview. “The
   updates that we are showing in the red lines are our way to better
   explain the products that exist today,” he said.

   In some ways, the company is making it more clear that it uses a wide
   variety of personal data about its 1.2 billion users to deliver
   advertising, including things they share and do, what they like, how
   they interact with ads and applications, and even demographic data
   inferred from everything else.

   Facebook also said that it might use its customers’ profile photos to
   help their friends tag them in photos. Those photos are already public,
   but Facebook does not currently use them to help recognize faces when
   photos are uploaded to the service. “This will make the product better
   for people,” Mr. Palmieri said. “You can still opt out of it.”

   But the company is also deliberately deleting information about
   specific privacy controls. Instead, Mr. Palmieri said, Facebook decided
   it was better to send users to various other pages, such as one on
   advertising, to learn more about privacy issues and how to adjust the
   controls.

   For example, the data use policy will no longer offer a direct path to
   the control for opting out of your name and activities on the site
   being used as endorsements on ads sent to your friends.

   Facebook is also doing nothing to simplify its maze of privacy
   settings.The company doesn’t offer clear links or explanations of the
   settings from its own “Facebook and Privacy” page, and its Graph Search
   feature isn’t especially helpful for the task, either.

   Privacy controls are still buried in at least six different menus. To
   plunge down the rabbit hole, click on the little lock icon next to your
   name in the top-left column of your news feed page. You will find
   privacy settings in the tabs for Privacy, Timeline and Tagging,
   Blocking, Followers, Apps and Ads.

   Mr. Palmieri said the company added one section to its policies in
   response to its $20 million settlement on Monday of a 2011 lawsuit
   asserting that the company used its customers’ personal information in
   advertising without compensation or allowing them to opt out.

   The old policy explicitly stated, “You can use your privacy settings to
   limit how your name and profile picture may be associated with
   commercial, sponsored, or related content (such as a brand you like)
   served or enhanced by us.”

   Facebook’s new language starts with the opposite position. “You give us
   permission to use your name, and profile picture, content, and
   information in connection with commercial, sponsored, or related
   content (such as a brand you like) served or enhanced by us,” the
   company said. “If you have selected a specific audience for your
   content or information, we will respect your choice when we use it.”

   Mr. Palmieri said the two versions amount to the same thing.

   It brings to mind Humpty Dumpty in Lewis Carroll’s “Through the Looking
   Glass.” As he told young Alice, “When I use a word, it means just what
   I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.”

   A version of this article appears in print on 09/02/2013, on page B5 of
   the NewYork edition with the headline: New Privacy On Facebook Still
   Cryptic.
   (BUTTON)
   Social, Facebook Inc, Online Advertising, Privacy, Social Media

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