Facebook on Monday announced the launch of its Privacy and Data Use Business Hub, a service that provides companies the resources needed to understand how they can protect private user information.
Facebook has marked the 2019 Data Privacy Day by reminding users to take a “Privacy Checkup” that should help them ensure they don’t unknowingly expose their profile and data.
The social media giant has also unveiled its Privacy and Data Use Business Hub, which centralizes information on privacy principles, terms and policies, regulatory information, and trust and transparency. The goal is to help businesses understand how Facebook’s advertising system works, how they can protect information when using the social media service, and the implications and requirements of data regulations such as the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
Facebook has been in hot water in the past year as a result of several serious incidents involving user data. The list includes a security breach that impacted tens of millions of users, the misuse of personal data by Cambridge Analytica, leaked emails showing that Facebook was prepared to give some companies more access to data, and apps that posed privacy concerns.
The company has paid out significant amounts of money through its bug bounty program, it has suspended many applications over data security concerns, closed down pages involved in influence operations, and announced new measures to protect privacy.
“This year we’ll do more to explain how Facebook uses people’s data and provide people with more transparency and control,” said Erin Egan, Facebook’s Chief Privacy Officer.
According to Egan, this includes launching a new “Clear History” control in the upcoming months that would allow users to see information obtained from other apps and websites, and give them the possibility to disconnect that information from their Facebook account.
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Eduard Kovacs (@EduardKovacs) is a contributing editor at SecurityWeek. He worked as a high school IT teacher for two years before starting a career in journalism as Softpedia’s security news reporter. Eduard holds a bachelor’s degree in industrial informatics and a master’s degree in computer techniques applied in electrical engineering.
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