Meta's new privacy policy, users can see where data is used

Facebook and Whatsapp's parent Meta has redesigned its privacy policy in a bid to be more upfront about how the social media giant use user information gathered by the platform. The new policy however does not include Whatsapp.

In a blog post on the website Meta states "We’ve rewritten and re-designed our Privacy Policy to make it easier to understand and clearer about how we use your information. Our Terms of Service is being updated to better explain what is expected from us and those who use our platforms."

A new setting will give people more control over who can see their posts by default. And existing controls over which advertisements users can see are consolidated into a single interface.

Zuckerberg led Meta also said it is giving more details about the types of third parties with whom it shares and receives information, and how data is shared between its products.

Users in India will however have a choice to accept the updated privacy policy and terms of service or not, without any impact on how they access their products, the company said.

Facebook has faced multiple backlashes for its privacy policy, the earliest being in 2007 when it was bought to light that the platform was gathering information on purchases and sharing it with 'friends list' without user consent. More recently in March, the company was fined €17 million for breaching EU data privacy laws in 2018.