Facebook on Wednesday unveiled a long list of changes to its “governing documents,” that is, its terms of use and data usage policy, the documents that spell out exactly what Facebook can do with users’ data and how users can adjust their settings.
Among the biggest changes include one that will impact how Facebook makes future changes themselves: The world’s largest social network is phasing out the ability for users to “vote” on proposed changes before they go into effect on the website. Facebook said in an official blog post that the voting process is being discontinued because it emphasized “quantity” over “quality,” of responses.
But the change comes after only a fraction of users participated in the last voting period ahead of changes to Facebook’s data use policy in June (well below one percent).
Facebook said in its blog post Wednesday that it would replace voting with a week-long period for comments from users and begin sending to users email notifications of changes to the website’s governing documents.
“As always, we will carefully consider your feedback before adopting any changes,” wrote Elliot Schrage, Facebook’s vice president of communications for public policy and marketing, in a note posted on the website.
In addition, Facebook’s Schrage said the company would introduce two new features: A feature allowing users to ask the company’s chief privacy officer, Erin Egan, questions on the Facebook and Privacy Page and live webcasts with the privacy officer, in which she would answer user questions.
But those are just two of the most major changes Facebook is poised to make. Another includes “replacing the ‘Who can send you Facebook messages’ setting” with a way to adjust the setting via emails sent to those users.
Further, Facebook has adjusted its documentation on “registration and account security” to make more explicit the website’s increasing usage as a mouthpiece for other businesses, companies and commercial entities, changing the current language from “You will not use your personal timeline for your own commercial gain,” to “You will not use your personal timeline primarily for your own commercial gain and will use a Facebook Page for such as selling your status update to an advertiser purposes.”
Read all of the proposed changes in the “Documents” tab on Facebook’s Site Governance Page.
Correction: This article originally referred in two places to the Facebook announcement as a “news release,” when it was in fact first posted on Facebook’s Site Governance page as a blog post. We’ve corrected the story in copy and apologize for the errors.
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Carl Franzen
Carl Franzen is TPM Idea Lab's tech reporter. He used to work for The Daily, AOL and The Atlantic Wire (though not simultaneously, thankfully). He's never met a button that didn't need to be pressed. He can be reached at carl@talkingpointsmemo.com.
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