meta: Meta announces new privacy controls for Facebook users

Meta (formerly Facebook ) announced new privacy controls for users, saying that it is rolling out a new setting to make it easier to manage who sees your posts on Facebook.

Now, when someone selects a default audience , that audience selection will apply to new posts created in Facebook that they share to their timeline unless they select a different audience for a particular post.

Previously, your default audience for posts matched whichever audience you chose most recently. So if you had just made a post that was available to the public, your subsequent posts would be as well

“This new setting will help make sure you’re sharing with the right people in your community,” said Michel Protti, Chief Privacy Officer, Product at Meta.

Meta recently consolidated the Ad Topics and Interest Categories controls into a single control that can be accessed on Facebook and Instagram, covering a more extensive set of ad topics.

“This allows people to use a single control to set preferences across ad topics that reflect the interest targeting categories advertisers may use to reach them and the content they might see in an ad,” Protti explained.

Meta said it has rewritten and re-designed Privacy Policy to make it easier to understand and clearer about how the company uses your information.

“While the text looks different, Meta is not collecting, using or sharing your data in new ways based on this policy update,” said Meta.

In addition, Meta is also updating its Terms of Service to better explain “what is expected from us and those who use our platforms”.

Meta will send notifications about the new Privacy Policy and Terms of Service to users and these updates go into effect on July 26.