Meta Platforms, formerly Facebook, announced Friday the launch of a central privacy hub that aims to “educate people” about its approach to how personal information is collected and processed. In its suite of social media apps.
The “Privacy Center provides useful information on five common privacy topics: sharing, security, data collection, data use, and advertising,” the social technology company. pointed In a press release.
The first module, Security, will provide easy access to common tools such as account security settings and two-factor authentication. The post will provide details about post visibility and settings for archiving or deleting old posts. Collection and Usage will give users a quick overview of the type of data collected by Meta and see how and why it is being used, respectively. Finally, the Ads section will provide information regarding the user’s advertising preferences.
The Learning Center is expected to initially be limited to a small group of people using Facebook on desktop in the US, with plans to roll it out to more users and more of its apps in the coming months. Users in the beta version will be able to access the Privacy Center by going to Settings and Privacy on the desktop version of Facebook.
The Privacy Center joins a slew of other tools already offered by the tech giant, including Privacy Shortcuts And Confidentiality Check, which guides users through some of the platform’s privacy and security settings and reviews their options. Where the new feature differs is that it hopes to serve as a one-stop shop for navigating the myriad of privacy and security controls available on Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp.
Over the years, Facebook aggregate checkups emerged as a controversial magnet for be confusing To the point of not being useful enough to protect user data, especially paid maze lists and nonsensical language designed to deter users from making privacy-conscious choices about its service.
so called “dark patternsSkillfully enforced user interface design was highlighted in June 2018, when a report from the Norwegian Consumer Council titled design tricks, revealed how “default settings, dark modes, techniques and interface design features intended to manipulate users are used to push users into intrusive privacy choices.”
By penalizing users for choosing privacy over sharing, the report deplores “Google’s intrusive privacy defaults, misleading wording, giving users the illusion of control, hiding, and dealing with or leaving privacy-friendly options, and choice structures where choosing the option that respects privacy requires more effort. to users”.
Collection to study From the Facebook desktop user interface conducted by researchers at the University of Bremen in March 2021, they note that “the way Facebook handles privacy settings control represents a new, dark paradigm,” adding, “by placing all privacy settings behind multiple interface layers.” Facebook is actively offering a well-designed but incomplete alternative to its management. “