After two years coming down the
pipe at tech giants, Europe’s new privacy framework, the General Data
Protection Regulation (GDPR), is now being rolled out. Complaints
are now rolling in against Facebook and their subsidies, Instagram and
WhatsApp, along with Google.
These complaints have been based on companies using a strategy of “forced consent”
to continue processing the individuals’ personal data. The truth is, the law
requires that users be given a free choice unless consent is strictly necessary
for provision of the service.
Facebook has begun to block accounts of users who have not given
consent. This leaves little choice for users not willing to allow these
companies to process their personal data when using the social service.
Facebook released the following statement, attributed to its chief privacy
officer, Erin Egan:
“We have prepared for the past
18 months to ensure we meet the requirements of the GDPR. We have made our
policies clearer, our privacy settings easier to find and introduced better
tools for people to access, download, and delete their information. Our work to
improve people’s privacy doesn’t stop on May 25th. For example, we’re building
Clear History: a way for everyone to see the websites and apps that send us
information when you use them, clear this information from your account, and
turn off our ability to store it associated with your account going forward.”
It is an interesting position for both users and companies alike,
where if you’d like to use a popular social media platform, such as Facebook,
there is no real way around continuing to agree to their Terms and Data Policy.
If you don’t agree, then you might be out of luck and need to resort to a
different social platform that relies less on shared user data.
Interested in the full story? Head over to Techcrunch for the full
article.
______________________________________________________________
Thanks for reading!
Enjoyed this article? Sign up for The Summit - our monthly Newsletter.
Say Hello On: Instagram | Facebook | Twitter | LinkedIn | YouTube