Tech

Facebook Is About To Give All Users Opportunity To Limit What It Knows About You

(Photo by Christophe Petit Tesson / POOL / AFP)

Daily Caller News Foundation logo
Eric Lieberman Managing Editor
Font Size:

Facebook announced Thursday that it will soon start asking users if they want to review the privacy settings for their respective accounts so the company can better ready itself for the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

The request to update under what conditions it can extract, manage, and use people’s personal information was first provided to those within the jurisdiction of the European governing body, but will now be made available everywhere. Details it wants users to assess, or reassess, include how it utilizes their online traits and activity for advertising, and if they are okay with facial recognition.

Also in question is: “political, religious, and relationship information they’ve chosen to include on their profiles.”

“People will see a summary of the choices they’ve already made and won’t see information about features they’ve already disabled or decided not to use,” Erin Egan, Facebook’s chief privacy officer, wrote in a company blog post. “For example, if you’ve already disabled face recognition or ads based on data from partners, we won’t ask you to turn them on.” (RELATED: Facebook Looks To Ramp Up Outreach With Conservatives And Libertarians To Help Combat Privacy Rules)

Such alterations to one’s privacy choices can be made at any time, despite what some seem to imply.

GDPR is set to take effect Friday. Facebook appears to be trying to adapt to the imminently enforced rules in more way than one, after a Reuters report in April said that Facebook is trying to exclude 1.5 billion users from the regulations.

Follow Eric on Twitter

Send tips to eric@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.