Facebook Made Its Privacy Principles Public for the First Time Ever

Facebook is going public with a lot more information on privacy settings for users. Chief privacy officer Erin Egan revealed the social network’s privacy principles for the first time ever, and her Newsroom post also detailed ways that Facebook is making its core privacy settings easier for its users to find. Egan wrote in introducing Facebook’s privacy principles: “Facebook was built to bring people closer together. We help you connect with friends and family, discover local events and find groups to join. We recognize that people use Facebook to connect, but not everyone wants to share everything with everyone—including with us. It’s important that you have choices when it comes to how your data is used. These are the principles that guide how we approach privacy at Facebook.” More details are available on each principle in the Newsroom post, but here are the social network’s privacy principles: We give you control of your privacy. We help people understand how their data is used. We design privacy into our products from the outset. We work hard to keep your information secure. You own and can delete your information. Improvement is constant. We are accountable. Egan also announced that Facebook users will begin seeing educational videos such as the one embedded below in their News Feeds, on topics including how to control the information the social network uses to show people ads, how to review and delete old posts and what happens when people delete their accounts altogether. [kickout id="1"] Facebook plans to launch a new privacy center later this year, which Erin said will group all of the social network’s core privacy settings in a single place, adding, “We’re designing this based on feedback from people, policymakers and privacy experts around the world.” Finally, Egan said Facebook is developing resources that will enable other organizations to build privacy into their services, writing, “Throughout 2018 we’re hosting workshops on data protection for small and medium businesses, beginning in Europe with a focus on the new General Data Protection Regulation. We hosted our first workshop in Brussels last week and published a guide for frequently asked questions. Around the world we’ll continue to host Design Jams that bring designers, developers, privacy experts and regulators together to create new ways of educating people on privacy and giving them control of their information.”