Here's how Facebook will comply with EU's strict privacy laws
Facebook is taking steps to comply with General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), a European Union law that regulates data protection and privacy for individuals in the EU.
The social media giant, whose privacy-related issues have been very public in the last month or so, will give users in the EU more choice about what types of information they want to share with the company starting next week.
"We not only want to comply with the law, but also go beyond our obligations to build new and improved privacy experiences for everyone on Facebook," the company said in a blog post Wednesday.
In practice, this means users will be able to choose whether they'll let Facebook user partner data to display them ads. They'll also be asked whether they want to continue sharing political, religious and relationship info on their profiles (if they previously shared it), and Facebook's face recognition feature will be off by default.
It's important to note that some of these are only pertinent to people in the EU and Canada; for example, people in the U.S. will have face recognition on by default, but they will be able to turn it off should they choose to do so.
The company also pointed out that, while these changes will require users to sign updated terms of service and data policy documents, Facebook will not be asking for new rights to collect, use or share user data on the network.
Facebook will be rolling out these changes gradually, but all EU citizens should see them before May 25, which is when GDPR comes into effect.
Obviously, none of this means users will ever be able to completely opt out of seeing ads on Facebook. If that's what you want -- as confirmed by Facebook Deputy Chief Privacy Officer Rob Sherman -- the only option is to simply not be on Facebook.
Facebook has come under scrutiny in March, after it was discovered that U.K.-based data firm Cambridge Analytica, which was employed by Donald Trump's presidential campaign in 2016, allegedly used personal data of 50 million Facebook users without their knowledge.
Topics Facebook Social Media
Stan is a Senior Editor at Mashable, where he has worked since 2007. He's got more battery-powered gadgets and band t-shirts than you. He writes about the next groundbreaking thing. Typically, this is a phone, a coin, or a car. His ultimate goal is to know something about everything.
