Facebook Changes Data-Use Policy Despite 87% Poll Opposition

snoopy · Jun 12, 2012

Facebook changes data-use policy despite 87% poll opposition
Our secret vote only drew 'unrepresentative' users
By Kelly Fiveash • Get more from this author
Posted in Networks, 11th June 2012 12:03 GMT

Facebook has ignored a vote "cast" by 297,883 of its members who agreed that the social network shouldn't update its data use policy. Despite that, the company is amending its rules on the way it slurps data from its users for the purposes of advertising - a move that comes in the wake of the Irish data protection commissioner's privacy inspection of the website at the end of 2011. That watchdog is the nearest responsible data protection authority outside of the firm's US headquarters, where all the data Facebook collects is stored.

Facebookers triggered a vote on the company's proposed data use policy tweak, after those opposed to the plan pushed passed the 7,000 user comments threshold to force a public online debate on the changes. But, as detailed in Facebook's "Statement of Rights and Responsibilities" (SRR), 30 per cent of the company's 900 million users would need to cast a vote to make the result binding, rather than advisory. Hence, Facebook is ignoring the ballot and making the changes to its policy.

On Friday, the company's communications and public policy veep Elliot Schrage said:

We strongly believe these updates provide you with more detail and transparency about our data protections and practices. We received a great deal of positive feedback about these changes from our regulators and the many other stakeholders – including privacy and consumer groups – we consulted about these revisions.

Most of the changes clarify rather than fundamentally change our standards. Many of the changes simply reflect recently launched products or conform language between our various policies. More significantly, the changes incorporate recommendations made by our regulators, including the Irish Data Protection Commissioner’s Office.
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Full story here: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/06/11/facebook_voting_low_for_data_usage_policy/

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Facebook Changes Data-Use Policy Despite 87% Poll Opposition

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