Facebook Inc. is rewording two key documents that are essential to its service, putting the changes up for review and asking for feedback for the next seven days.
The social network’s Statement of Rights and Responsibilities and Data Use Policy are going to be revamped to inform users about how data is used for advertising purposes, and will explain how it collects data, writes Jennifer Van Grove of CNET. The updated versions should be released later today.
The changes are in response to a two-year lawsuit that saw plaintiffs accusing Facebook of violating users’ privacy by reporting who “liked” advertisements, known as “Sponsored Stories,” without permission or compensation. The lawsuit was settled on Aug. 26.
It doesn’t necessarily mean Facebook will change how it does advertising, but it does mean it’s trying to explain its practices and make things more clear, Grove reports.
According to CNET, Facebook’s new Statement of Rights reads:
“You give us permission to use your name, and profile picture, content, and information in connection with commercial, sponsored, or related content (such as a brand you like) served or enhanced by us. This means, for example, that you permit a business or other entity to pay us to display your name and/or profile picture with your content or information, without any compensation to you. If you have selected a specific audience for your content or information, we will respect your choice when we use it.
If you are under the age of eighteen (18), or under any other applicable age of majority, you represent that at least one of your parents or legal guardians has also agreed to the terms of this section (and the use of your name, profile picture, content, and information) on your behalf.”
There aren’t many actual changes made to how Facebook runs its service, but the company has made a change to how users are tagged in photos for users in some geographies. When a user goes to tag his or her friends, those friends’ profile pictures will be used to provide tag suggestions – but this feature will not be present in Canada and Europe.
It’ll be hard to gauge whether these changes are concrete enough to make Facebook critics happy, but only time will tell if new issues crop up with the legal documents’ new wording.
For more, read CNET’s article here.