Facebook Bends to EU Pressure on Misleading Fine Print
April 09 2019 - 6:31AM
Dow Jones News
By Sam Schechner
European Union regulators have pressured Facebook into changing
what the bloc had called misleading terms of service, the latest
example of a broader effort by governments globally to exercise
more control over tech firms.
The European Commission said Facebook has agreed to address a
list of outstanding concerns that it and a group of national
consumer-protection authorities had articulated over the company's
terms of service. The changes will be made by June, the Commission
said.
Among the commitments, the Commission disclosed, Facebook will
spell out for users how it makes money by using personal
information about them to sell targeted advertising, and clarify
that it can be held liable for misuse of user data when it "has not
acted with due professional diligence."
"Today Facebook finally shows commitment to more transparency
and straightforward language in its terms of use," said Vera
Jourova, the EU's commissioner for justice, consumers and gender
equality.
Facebook said it made "several of the updates" as a result of
work with EU consumer-protection regulators, but would make those
changes globally.
"We've been doing a lot of work this year to better explain how
Facebook works, what data we collect and how we use it. As part of
these ongoing efforts, we'll be updating our Terms of Service to be
more clear about how Facebook makes money," said Thomas Myrup
Kristensen, Facebook's managing director of EU affairs.
Write to Sam Schechner at sam.schechner@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
April 09, 2019 06:16 ET (10:16 GMT)
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