Facebook to simplify user privacy settings
Facebook is making it simpler for people to control how their data is used after a massive privacy scandal has shaken the company and caused its stock price to drop 15 percent.
In the coming months, privacy controls that are now in 20 different places on Facebook’s app will be merged into a single page, and will include what the company says will be easierto-comprehend features that explain how the company is using a person’s data, the company announced Wednesday.
Facebook will also create a page that makes it easier for people to download their data so that they can more clearly view what information the company collects about them.
The changes come during a crisis moment after revelations that the data consultancy Cambridge Analytica had wrongfully obtained the Facebook profiles on at least 50 million U.S. Facebook users.
They also coincide with sweeping new privacy laws, which require more specific and simplified to disclosures to consumers, which are about to go into effect in Europe.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is expected to testify in Congress next month.
Meanwhile, Playboy Enterprises says it’s pulling its Facebook presence. Playboy says it’s been difficult anyway to “express our values” because of Facebook’s strict content and policy guidelines, which include restrictions on nudity.
Playboy says the alleged data mismanagement is the last straw.
About 25 million people interacted with Playboy’s Facebook pages.
A smattering of other companies have made similar moves, including nonprofit Mozilla, which created the Firefox browser, Elon Musk’s companies SpaceX and Tesla and German bank Commerzbank.