Facebook to Unveil New Privacy Updates, it’s First Since Cambridge Analytica Scandal

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Facebook has come under fire since ,id-Match over its handling of user data.

Popular social media platform, Facebook has announced plans to unveil a new update to its Privacy Checkup Tool. The updates which would be revealed at the CES 2020, would be Facebook’s first significant update since the Cambridge Analytica scandal.

Facebook Updates Privacy Checkup Tool, it's First Since Cambridge Analytica
Facebook set to reveal an update to privacy tool at CES 2020

Facebook’s Privacy Checkup tool was created in 2014 to allows users control access to personal information like email address and phone number.

However, in early 2018, Facebook faced a major privacy scandal when Cambridge Analytica illicitly harvested personal data from up to 87 million users without their consent.

Also, in July last year, Facebook was fined a record $5 billion for using phone numbers intended for two-factor authentication in its advertising. It also accidentally stored passwords in plaintext, thus exposing users to hackers and scammers.

The Facebook privacy updates will be introduced based on issues that users were most concerned about. They will provide more privacy control over personal data to avoid the recurrence of another major scandal.

Facebook Updates Privacy Checkup Tool, it's First Since Cambridge Analytica
The Update to the privacy tool allows users to choose who to see what they share

The privacy update increases the categories of the Privacy Checkup tool from three to eight. It would also come under four different topics: Who can see what you share; How to keep your account secure; How people can find you on Facebook; and Your data settings.

The new tools will give users one central tab where they can change settings to choose who can view their profile. They could also control who can send them friend requests as well as enable two-factor authentication and permissions settings for third-party apps.

For users who log into other apps and websites with their Facebook accounts, there would be a Data Settings section. This section provides a convenient location where users can revoke access permissions to those apps and websites.

However, the Facebook Privacy Checkup updates appear to mainly address privacy concerns on the social platform itself, not away from it. As such there are strong concerns that data brokers, miners and advertisers can still target entire groups of people using the social network.


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