Facebook revises user policies after complaints, questions

181602updated 11:05 pm EDT, Fri April 20, 2012 More clarity but no change on privacy issues

Following a lengthy period of questions, comments and complaints about the difficulty users have in controlling privacy, Facebook has posted a series of proposed revisions to its Statement of Rights and Responsibilities, and is extending the comment period. The company continues to struggle with balance between gathering information about users for the benefit of both other users and advertisers, while addressing concerns of users, most of whom do not fully understand Facebook's data collection.Recently the company renamed its "privacy policy" to "data use policy" to reflect more accurately what they do with the data collection. Being social in nature, Facebook naturally collects large amounts of data about what users say, do and know on the service -- which it uses to target advertising, develop or refine services, and keep people in touch with each other. Users, however, complained bitterly when the company disclosed that "crossover" data is also collected -- for example, Facebook apps that a users' friends enjoy can collect what data those friends know about other users, if that person didn't add the app.

In its FAQ to the questions posed from the last round of comments, Facebook has clarified that this policy has been in place since 2007. It also reminds users that more granular privacy controls are available in the users' privacy settings, though Facebook does little to educate users or draw attention to these features, and many users complain that they are well-hidden and difficult to use. Periodic changes in Facebook's service means that users must fairly frequently go and review the privacy settings over and over again to be sure that new services don't assume consent to sharing data.

The biggest change to Facebook has been the slow rollout of Timeline, a controversial design change that gives the pages a more visual emphasis but also makes it easier for visitors to research everything a user has put up as a status or photo. With the change, many have found that they need to adjust privacy settings, sometimes down to individual postings.

Facebook also clarified a change in its prohibited speech policy, changing the wording from "harmful" to "hate speech," a more specific term. "Sometimes discussions on Facebook include controversial content

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