Did you know that there was a vote to address Facebook’s data usage policies? If this is news to you, you aren’t alone. Less than 1 percent of Facebook’s billion users actually voted on this hot issue, although Chief Privacy Officer of Policy, Erin Egan, argues that they did what they could to drive user participation through email notifications and posts on their governance page.
The bottom line? Indeed, changes were made and there are a few important items to note for both users and marketers:
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Perhaps the most hotly contested, Facebook removed the privacy option to hide oneself from the search tool. This means that anyone can find you, see your profile photo and your cover image.
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The data policy states that Facebook will use any and all of the information they receive, as long as they give you notice – which could mean just updating the data policy. So, if you aren’t reading the data policy, you may not know what kind of information is being shared or used to suggest products and services.
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Good news for users: Facebook has made privacy controls more prominent so that they have more control over what they share. New design changes include:
- Shortcuts in the main tool bar to manage privacy settings like blocking users and unsubscribing from users
- Language on the site to clarify how information is shared
- A tool that makes it easier to change privacy settings on multiple photos at the same time
As marketers, the more access we have to information about Facebook users, the more relevant we can be when communicating with them. However, its important to remember that while we may have access, users are still pretty skittish about the content they receive from brands - relevant or not. Permission should be the golden rule.
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