How the Facebook-FTC Agreement Will Affect You and Your Data
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the US Department of Justice (DOJ) take responsibility for recent errors regarding Facebook’s privacy, including the company’s failure to comply with the 2012 FTC regulation on how Facebook processes its users’ data.
While the Justice Department’s lawsuit is still pending , Facebook recently agreed to a FTC order that requires the company to pay $ 5 billion in fines and comply with a 20-year surveillance program, including annual reviews of its privacy and data collection practices.
The intricacies of the FTC’s decision mainly affect Facebook’s business structure and won’t have an immediate, if any, impact on the user experience. However, there are several changes to the way Facebook collects and disseminates data that will affect users – some of them based on existing changes that Facebook recently made, probably in anticipation of what was about to happen.
Here’s a rundown of the privacy changes you should be aware of and how they affect you and your Facebook data.
New rules for sharing data with third-party apps and advertisers
The FTC regulation sets stricter standards for Facebook’s handling of third-party apps and advertisers. Facebook must now remove third parties that do not comply with Facebook’s policies or cannot reasonably justify their requests for specific data from Facebook users.
This means that these apps and advertisers no longer have carte blanche access to user data and must explain exactly how and why that data will be used, but the exact standards for “justifying” requests have not been defined. This lack of definition could lead to many gray areas regarding these rules, but Facebook users have several tools to view how their data is processed and control access to it . Most importantly, this regulation does not place restrictions on how facebook can find out more about you; rather, it is trying to limit what Facebook sells to advertisers.
Better transparency for face recognition technology
Facebook must now clearly warn users when it is using facial recognition technology, be more open about how and why it is being used, and alert users if it updates its technology or functionality beyond what users were originally asked to agree to. The company must also obtain explicit consent from users to enable facial recognition functionality in the first place – something it has been known to overlook in the past.
We’ll likely see a better explanation of the technology and further refinements to the opt-out / sign-out user settings as a result of this decision, but it’s important to note that it doesn’t change the current user settings, although we do have a guide for viewing and changing Facebook face recognition settings .
Requirements for storage of new passwords
Ironically, when the reports highlighted Facebook’s weak password protection , it was both shocking and unsurprising. Fortunately, according to a FTC ruling, all password data must now be fully encrypted, and the company must now regularly scan its servers for text repositories. Likewise, Facebook will not be able to ask new users for your email passwords to their other services.
Limited collection of phone numbers
In the past, Facebook has had ways to find (and then share) your phone number, even if you didn’t include it on your profile. With this new FTC ruling, Facebook is now prohibited from “using” phone numbers obtained through security features such as two-step verification.
However, it is not clear what exactly “use” means. Collecting them? Selling them? It’s hard to tell and frustrating as Facebook has a habit of collecting phone numbers “by accident”. Fortunately, there are ways to remove this information from your profile and prevent Facebook from tracking your device’s contact information.
We will not know the full effect that users will see from these changes until they are implemented and actions are taken, but it is difficult to believe in these changes as long as the platform exists to collect and sell your data. We’ll have to wait and see how this all shakes up (including the Justice Department lawsuit, which is still pending), but in the meantime, it might be wise to consider whether to keep Facebook – or if you should delete it permanently .