Every now and then, Meta updates its platform, features, and policies to keep up with the newest online trends and offer users a better and optimized experience. As part of their efforts to do so, Meta published its updated Privacy Policy, or what was formerly known as its ‘Data Policy’, a couple of days ago in order to provide a clearer overview regarding the types of information that Meta gathers, uses or shares.
These Meta updates are the results of developing privacy regulations all over the globe, in addition to the feedback that is regularly collected from both users and experts.
To explain the reasons behind these updates, Meta notes:
“Our goal with this update is to be more clear about our data practices; one way we’ve done this is through additional details and examples throughout. At Meta, we’ve always set out to build personalized experiences that provide value without compromising your privacy. So, it’s on us to have strong protections for the data we use and be transparent about how we use it.”
This statement actually comes as a surprise for readers, seeing that the company has a long record of distributing its users’ data to third parties by having constant flaws in its system.
The new Meta updates and the new Privacy Policy, which will become effective in July, is introduced to add more transparency to personal security matters; however, it is doing so in a very engaging and appealing way, using vivid illustrations and real-life examples along the way.
These representations will help contextualize different scenarios to help users improve their understanding of the policy and empower them to take action to keep their data protected.
These Meta updates will still require people to go through all the information related to the Privacy Policy; which is something that most of them don’t actually bother doing but should. However, Meta is also introducing in-app prompts that are meant to alert people to the change.
With all of the efforts behind these new meta updates, it is unknown whether users will bother scanning the new terms of service but the platform is still trying to make the necessary changes to encourage them to check out the changes.
Last but not least, Meta updates are also featuring new post-level default settings to make it a lot easier to control who can access your content on Facebook. Meta gave more details about this change with the following statement:
“Now, when someone selects a default audience, that audience selection will apply to new posts created in Facebook that they share to their timeline unless they select a different audience for a particular post. Previously, your default audience for posts matched whichever audience you chose most recently. So if you had just made a post that was available to the public, your subsequent posts would be as well. This new setting will help make sure you’re sharing with the right people in your community.”
All of these Meta updates and the new Privacy Policy will be effective on Facebook, Instagram and Messenger but not WhatsApp or Messenger Kids.
Want to read more about Meta and its updates? Check out the following articles!