Page 7 - AeM_May_2018

RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS

Facebook’s Privacy Policy still seems

to be illegitimate

Just last week, the GDPR came into force, but privacy
advocates immediately got down to work to put the law
to the test by getting granular on Facebook, including its
subsidiaries Instagram and WhatsApp.

Their complaints are mainly about popups prompting
users to give consent if they want to continue using
Facebook’s services and not being barred. Some reflect
on what's at stake right now, which could be nothing
less than the future of our digital economy.

Even eMarketer.com asked the prevailing
question: Can Advertisers Still Trust Facebook? and sat
down with Carolyn Everson, vice president of global
marketing at Facebook, in the wake of the Cambridge data processing. It lacks sufficient information for
Analyticacontroversy to discuss the company’s making a free, comprehensively informed decision,
relationship with advertisers. which is crucial. Even an implied consent by continuing
the use cannot be accepted due to lack of knowledge
Everson argued the whole industry is dealing with the of the consent and the commitment of the user to
same issue of how to balance targeted advertising and provide correct personal data is also ineffective, since
privacy. She said: “It will require the company to do a the user gives his consent to the processing of these
better job educating consumers and giving consumers data without having received sufficient information.
full control of how that advertising experience—and the
overall experience with their own data—plays out.” In general, it has been difficult to formulate an effective
consent to data processing so far, and the new data
She seems to be right, when looking at Facebook's protection law makes things even more complicated -
quarterly financial data, released for the first time since e.g. a coupling ban is added or a minimum age for
the Cambridge Analytica revelations. The results show effective consent is introduced (from 16 years).
no sign of advertisers or users abandoning the platform
and the company's performance was considerably In the future, the General Data Protection Regulation
stronger than many observers, including eMarketer, had (GDPR) will invoke more likely a legitimate interest in
expected. data processing, but the verdict also shows that
catching up with the data handling process is obviously
Isn’t it staggering? In its privacy settings, Facebook no easy task.
had made pre-settings regarding the range of data
processing – concerning, for instance, the target group "Facebook’s user engagement is holding steady, which
postings, the activation of the location service for the indicates—at least for now—that users are getting
Facebook messenger and the release of the link to the about the same amount of value out of being a
user history in search engines. The user had to change Facebook user as they were before,’” said eMarketer's
the default settings to prevent the corresponding data Peart.
processing. Facebook’s terms of use also included a
clear name obligation and a set of pre-formulated While growth remains steady, Facebook is taking steps
statements (for example, consent to the transfer of data to protect its content and data by doubling the number
to the US and its use by Facebook in commercial, of people working on content security. To start with,
sponsored or related content). In addition, users had to Facebook shut down Partner Categories last month, a
confirm they had read the data policy. product that enabled third party data providers to offer
their targeting directly on the platform, eMarketer.com
Anyway, the EU court now ruled that the defaults in the highlighted. And this comes at a time when few people
Privacy Center breached data protection law. The mere are comfortable sharing their personal data via third
offer of a "privacy tour" on the website during parties. ◊
registration is not sufficient indication of the extent of
By Daniela La Marca

MediaBUZZ Pte Ltd - Independant ePublisher for Asia