Meta start testing a new one Privacy Center, a digital hub that allows you to understand how the company collects and uses i your data his Facebook, Instagram e WhatsApp. A way to ensure that you learn to manage the privacy controls on the various platforms of the group, deciding how Meta can use your personal data.
Meta Privacy Center, learn how to manage your personal data
At the moment, only one small number of users in the United States can access the Meta Privacy Center by going to Facebook Privacy Settings. And only in the desktop version. But the company ensures that in the coming months the audience should expand, implementing all possible features so that we can allow or block access to personal data on the various platforms.
It therefore appears that the process is still ongoing. But Facebook has declared its intention to grant access to “more people and apps” in the next months. So within the year we will be able to learn how privacy controls work in five different modules, first on Facebook but then also on Instagram and WhatsApp.
Five variations of our data
According to what the company reports on the blog, there will be five guides with the relative controls, relevant to as many areas of privacy:
- Safety. In this section you can manage two-factor authentication, but also evaluate how Meta fights “data scraping”, ie the possibility for hackers to tap into the data published on your public accounts
- Sharing. In this section you can understand who can see your posts. But you can also delete old content that you don’t want to be visible anymore
- Collection. Here you can evaluate the different data that Meta collects and you can see it to evaluate whether it is appropriate or not
- Use. Here instead you will find the purposes that Meta gives to your data. Some information is used to sell advertising, others not: with this section you can understand it better. And manage your privacy accordingly.
- Advertising. Here you can evaluate how Meta assigns advertising and check which ads to receive and which to block.
Meta Privacy Center: more responsibility in the hands of users (for better or for worse)
Access to this information meets the allegations that, in recent months (when Meta was still called Facebook) have been leveled at the company regarding transparency. The Meta Privacy Center should serve to make the company’s choices regarding the use of data more evident and easier to understand.
But for users it becomes even more important that you can manage all your personal data on group accounts in one place. Starting with Facebook, but also in the future Instagram, WhatsApp and perhaps Oculus and the other virtual reality services of the group. Managing all these options becomes complicated, convincing many not to take the time to manage their privacy. Finding everything in one place should help you get them instead data in your own hands.
But as The Verge points out, the focus in the blog post on “to educate“The protection of privacy could help Meta a leave all responsibility in the hands of users. And therefore to avoid taking those that instead belong to her. A decision also in the media, which allows us to distance ourselves from the accusations that have multiplied in recent years.
However, this does not mean that the company’s privacy policies change in any way. They are accessible through a single hub (at least for someone being tested). But the message to copy and paste to protect their data that is circulating on social media is all a hoax, which contains incomplete information and fake news. And in general, copying and pasting something on social media has no legal value anywhere (not even in the Metaverse).
Now all that remains is to evaluate if Meta Privacy Center will really help better manage our data, or it serves above all to leave to users the responsibilities, but not the control over their privacy. We will find out in the coming months by testing its functions, we will keep you updated.