Facebook Wants You to Learn About Its Privacy Settings

Meta (the company formerly known as Facebook) has announced a new version of its Privacy Center, which it says you can use to learn about how it collects and uses data and how to navigate the myriad of privacy and security controls available. It says that the current version of the tool will have categories covering security, sharing, data collection, usage, and advertisements. While it sounds like a nice tool to have on hand, it feels more like Meta is putting the onus on users to make sure their apps work for them.

Meta says that this version of the Privacy Center (in the past, it had various things called privacy centres) is presently available to "some people using Facebook on desktop," but that it "will roll it out to more people and apps in the coming months." As per the blog post, there will be five categories for guides and controls that allow you to manage your security settings; who your posts are shared with, how Meta collects and uses your information, and your advertising profile and preferences.

A centralized location for controls that could otherwise be spread out across several screens is a good thing. Moreover, that part of this project could benefit users when they have access to it since Facebook's privacy settings can be unintuitive for many.

However, Facebook's emphasis on education (its press release uses the word "learn" nine times and also includes phrases like "review") puts the responsibility for the systems it builds on the user. If your privacy or security settings are not what most users would want or expect, Meta may say, "Well, we've given you the tools to learn about them." Also, you may always not like the information you find in the privacy centre, but you won't be able to do anything about it if there is no setting to change it.

According to Meta, if you have the new Privacy Center, you will be able to access it in Settings> Privacy, but Meta says it will "add more ways to access places where you may have privacy issues." He also says that he will continue to add more modules and controls to the Privacy Center as needed; hopefully, there won't be a test to see how much you've retained.