Facebook introduced a new data policy and terms of service on Wednesday that aim to better explain the information it gathers on you, but the company says it isn't collecting anything new.
"These updates are about making things clearer," wrote Erin Egan, Facebook's chief privacy officer, and Ashley Beringer, deputy general counsel in a blog post about the updates. "We're not asking for new rights to collect, use or share your data on Facebook. We're also not changing any of the privacy choices you've made in the past."
Those last two sentences are bolded in the blog post. It's no surprise the company would want to drive that point home. Facebook has received heaps of criticism for its role in transferring the data of 50 million of its users to Cambridge Analytica, as well as for its role in the spread of misinformation on its platform around the time of the 2016 election. The dual crises have prompted promises to do better on privacy and be more transparent about abuse on the platform from Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and other members of the company's leadership.
But while Facebook says it's not giving itself new power over your data, it's also not promising to give all of its users equal amounts of control over their own data. In an interview with Reuters on Tuesday, Zuckerberg declined to commit to giving Facebook users worldwide all of the new privacy protections the company is putting in place in Europe.
Those European rights, which focus on the ability to view and permanently delete your own data, come as a result of European Union rules called the General Data Protection Regulation that go into effect on May 25.
"We're still nailing down details on this, but it should directionally be, in spirit, the whole thing," Zuckerberg told Reuters. (Facebook did roll out tools for removing your data for all users last week.)
Facebook is collecting user feedback on its data policy as well as its updated terms of service for one week before making them official.
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