Facebook Inc. will continue to require its users to accept targeted ads, despite an overhaul of its privacy policies ahead of new data protection rules in the European Union.
In a statement, Facebook said it will ask people to choose in their settings whether or not they allow the company to use data from its partners to show ads. Partners include websites and apps that use Facebook's business tools, such as the "like" button.
Deputy Chief Privacy Officer Rob Sherman said during a press briefing that Facebook is an "advertising-supported service," stressing that opting out entirely of targeted advertising would thus not be possible, Reuters reported.
However, in a bid to improve user data privacy ahead of the implementation of the General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR, in the EU, Facebook confirmed it is cutting ties with third-party data brokers that advertisers tap to target ads on the platform. The company will wind down the practice over the next six months.
In addition, Facebook introduced changes to make it easier for users to find privacy controls. These include the removal of outdated settings and a redesign of its settings menu on mobile devices.
The company also launched a new privacy shortcut that guides users in securing their accounts, controlling personal information, controlling the ads they see and managing who can access their posts and profile information.
These changes enable Facebook to comply with some of the provisions in the upcoming European GDPR, which is set to take effect across the EU on May 25. Among others, the new law requires a company to obtain unambiguous affirmative consent from a user before collecting or processing the user's personal data.
Furthermore, Facebook has started asking Canadian and EU users for consent to use facial recognition for identifying them in photos and videos. The company said facial recognition is an "entirely optional" feature for all Facebook users.
The technology works by creating face templates after finding similarities in photos and videos in which a user has been tagged. The template is deleted when a user's face recognition setting is turned off.
Regarding the use of facial recognition technology, U.S. Judge James Donato of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California ruled earlier this week that Facebook must face a class-action lawsuit over its use of facial recognition technology on its platform.
The class action was filed on behalf of Facebook users in Illinois "for whom Facebook created and stored a face template" after June 7, 2011, when Facebook launched tag suggestions, and the suit alleged that the social networking giant violated the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act for gathering biometric information without explicit consent from its users.
A lawyer for Facebook users, Shawn Williams, told Bloomberg News that "as more people become aware of the scope of Facebook's data collection and as consequences begin to attach to that data collection, whether economic or regulatory, Facebook will have to take a long look at its privacy practices and make changes consistent with user expectations and regulatory requirements."
Facebook's most recent press briefing follows a day after David Baser, product management director at Facebook, explained how the social networking giant collects user data and when it collects data about people from other websites and apps.
Baser said in an April 16 official post that other companies like Twitter Inc., Pinterest Inc., Microsoft Corp.'s LinkedIn Corp., Amazon.com Inc., and Alphabet Inc. unit Google Inc. collect similar information from apps and sites, and also offer advertising services.
Sites and apps use services such as social plugins, Facebook login, Facebook Analytics and Facebook ads and measurement tools to make their content and ads more engaging, he explained.
Facebook has recently been drawing flak after allowing political data analytics firm Cambridge Analytica LLC and other third-party apps to obtain and misuse user data.
In March, the company revealed that data voluntarily provided to a personality test app by Cambridge University Professor Aleksandr Kogan had been improperly passed on to third parties, including Cambridge Analytica. It has estimated that data from as many as 87 million users may have been improperly shared as part of the scandal.
As a result, U.S. lawmakers grilled Facebook founder, Chairman and CEO Mark Zuckerberg over the issue. The latter has apologized for his company's mishandling of the matter.
When approached by S&P Global Market Intelligence, a spokesman for Facebook declined to comment.
