Facebook rolls out new privacy shortcuts

Facebook has announced that it will start to roll out new changes to its privacy shortcuts to provide better control in what could be shared within the social media site and the apps that could gather your data.

Instead of having multiple screens to display your preferences, the company has made the setting easier to access with a single-screen design that shows all of the most important controls you’ll want to control, along with cleaning up outdated settings. In addition, a new Privacy shortcuts menu will also roll out that aim to identify three objectives: make your account more secure, control how third-party apps get your information, and how you can control the ads you see.

There will also be tools to find, download, and delete your Facebook data should the need arises, and even copy them to another service. They will also roll out new Terms of Service and Data collection policies to ensure the safety of their users. “It’s also our responsibility to tell you how we collect and use your data in language that’s detailed, but also easy to understand. In the coming weeks, we’ll be proposing updates to Facebook’s terms of service that include our commitments to people. We’ll also update our data policy to better spell out what data we collect and how we use it. These updates are about transparency – not about gaining new rights to collect, use, or share data.” Facebook mentioned in their blog post.

The social media giant has faced tremendous criticism over the past few weeks in the US and UK for data collection issues — more than 50 million accounts and their information were mined by third-party company Cambridge Analytica over loopholes in the Facebook terms of service and data privacy collection policies and were apparently used to provide insights and influence then-US Presidential candidate Donald Trump’s online campaign in 2016.

Source: Facebook