Hindustan Times (Delhi)

Facebook revamps privacy settings amid data breach

- Yashwant Raj yashwant.raj@hindustant­imes.com

WASHINGTON: Facebook on Wednesday unveiled a series of privacy settings to give users more control over how their data is shared and who can access it.

In a further bid to regain trust lost in the aftermath of a massive data scandal, CEO Mark Zuckerberg plans to testify before the US Congress, after turning down an invitation from the British Parliament.

The social media giant is facing global outrage over reports, based on disclosure­s from a whistle-blower, that a quiz app harvested data from 50 million Facebook profiles and provided it to Cambridge Analytica.

“Last week showed how much more work we need to do to enforce our policies and help people understand how Facebook works and the choices they have over their data,” Facebook’s chief privacy officer Erin Egan and deputy general counsel Ashlie Beringer wrote in a blog post.

“So in addition to Mark’s announceme­nts last week – cracking down on abuse of the Facebook platform, strengthen­ing our policies, and making it easier for people to revoke apps’ ability to use your data – we’re taking additional steps in the coming weeks to put people in more control over their privacy,” the post said.

The company announced a revamped settings menu for mobile devices to make things easier to find. Instead of being “spread across nearly 20 different screens”, they will now be found together on one page.

It has also purged “outdated settings”, making it clear to subscriber­s to see and know what data will be shared with apps.

The company has also introduced a new “privacy shortcuts” menu, which allows users to bolster account login security, review and delete shared data, and control who can see their informatio­n.

Another new tool, “access your informatio­n”, will allow users to access their posted informatio­n such as comments, posts and reactions, and delete whatever they don’t want to leave on the social media platform.

Users can also download their data — photos, posts, comments and contacts — in a secure copy.

Facebook officials said the company plans to make its privacy policy easy to follow and understand through updates in the coming weeks.

 ?? AP FILE ?? Mark Zuckerberg.
AP FILE Mark Zuckerberg.

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