Facebook now likely to overhaul data-sharing policies
Facebook Inc. got far fewer than a million votes in a user poll on proposed governance changes, meaning that the social network is likely to proceed with revisions to its data-sharing and member-input policies that privacy advocates had opposed.
Facebook said voting ended Monday at 3 p.m. New York time, with its website showing about 668,872 members weighed in.
While about 88 per cent of the votes counted so far sought to stick with the existing policies — a “no” vote on the proposed changes — the company requires that at least 30 per cent of its more than one billion users participate for the vote to be binding.
Menlo Park, Calif.-based Facebook last month proposed rolling back voting options for users, shifting controls on messaging and combining data from affiliates, including newly acquired photo-sharing service Instagram.
Privacy groups, including the Electronic Privacy Information Center and the Center for Digital Democracy, had opposed the changes, asking chief executive Mark Zuckerberg to scrap the proposal. The revised policies will improve how Facebook manages the governance process and better reflects the growing size of its user base, the company has said.
Among other things, the changes would give users more detailed information about shared data, including reminders about what’s visible to other people on Facebook.