Facebook agrees it will be liable for future Cambrige Analyticas

Some big changes are coming to Facebook’s terms of service in the fallout of the Cambridge Analytica scandal.

The European Commission announced this week that the world’s biggest social networking website has agreed to a few major changes to its terms and conditions. Facebook confirmed that these changes would go into effect for users worldwide and not just in the EU.

Most of these Facebook terms changes stem directly from issues which arose during the Cambridge Analytica scandal, where a third party company inappropriately mined Facebook user data.

One of the biggest changes is an about-face for the social media platform. Facebook will amend its terms on “limitation of liability” when it comes to future Cambridge Analytica-esque issues. The company “now acknowledges its responsibility in case of negligence, for instance in case data has been mishandled by third parties.” Previously, Facebook’s position was that it was not liable for third-parties misusing its platform.

Another major change is that Facebook will update its terms to explicitly say “that it does not charge users for its services in return for users' agreement to share their data and to be exposed to commercial advertisements.” While Facebook does already disclose to its users the reason they’re seeing advertisements, the company has agreed to now “clearly explain that their business model relies on selling targeted advertising services to traders by using the data from the profiles of its users.” Basically, it’s going to make it clear as day to users that the site is free because they are the product.

Facebook has also agreed to update its data retention policies. When a Facebook user deletes their content, Facebook will now only store the removed content for no more than an additional 90 days for “technical reasons” or if law enforcement makes a request.

Additionally, Facebook “amended its power to unilaterally change terms and conditions by limiting it to cases where the changes are reasonable also taking into account the interest of the consumer” and “amend the language clarifying the right to appeal of users when their content has been removed.”

"Today Facebook finally shows commitment to more transparency and straight forward language in its terms of use,” said EU Commissioner for Justice, Consumers and Gender Equality Vera Jourová. “A company that wants to restore consumers trust after the Facebook/ Cambridge Analytica scandal should not hide behind complicated, legalistic jargon on how it is making billions on people's data.”

“Now, users will clearly understand that their data is used by the social network to sell targeted ads,” she said.

The European Commission expects Facebook to implement these changes by June and “will closely monitor the implementation.” The Commission has also reached out to other social networks, such as Twitter, seeking similar terms of service updates.