As Facebook Inc. FB -1.21% works to repair trust with regulators and the public, the social network is releasing greater detail about how it collects and deploys vast troves of information about users.
On Wednesday, Facebook released proposed revisions to its terms of service and data policy. The documents mark the company’s first major update to its privacy disclosures since 2015.
The proposed policies don’t ask users for new permissions or change the preferences users have set in the past, but instead lay out more information about how the social network operates. The documents describe how Facebook uses data to customize the posts and ads users see, the circumstances under which it shares data, and the information it collects when users sync their contacts.
The revised terms also remind users that Facebook is part of the same company as Instagram, WhatsApp and Oculus, and that those units share information.
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The policy revision is part of a broader set of changes Facebook is working on to bolster the privacy of its users. It builds on an announcement Facebook made in late March that it will make it simpler for users to examine and change some of their data that the social network tracks.
“This is about making the information about how we use people’s data and how people can control it more clear,” Rob Sherman, deputy chief privacy officer at Facebook, said in an interview. He said Facebook has been working on the proposed policies for months.
A series of revelations over the past year have shaken user trust in Facebook’s products. On March 16, Facebook acknowledged that user data was improperly obtained by Cambridge Analytica, a data-analytics firm affiliated with President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign. Six months before that, Facebook disclosed that it had been exploited by Russian-backed propagandists in an attempt to sow divisions in the U.S.
Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg has apologized for a “major breach of trust” related to the Cambridge Analytica events. He will testify on April 11 before the House Energy and Commerce Committee about the company’s privacy measures, according to lawmakers.
Facebook has been taking a number of steps to address criticisms from its users, regulators and lawmakers. On Tuesday, Facebook announced that it had identified and removed a new batch of 135 accounts on its site linked to Russia’s Internet Research Agency troll farm.
Here’s what Facebook still shares from your profile, and how you can control it
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How Facebook articulates its terms of service to its users is important because Facebook has previously come under fire from the Federal Trade Commission. The agency in 2011 said Facebook deceived consumers by telling them they could they could keep their information on Facebook private, but then allowed it to be made public. A subsequent settlement between the FTC and Facebook required the company to give consumers notice before sharing their information beyond their data settings.
The FTC is now investigating Facebook over how Cambridge Analytica used Facebook data.
Facebook’s Mr. Sherman said protecting people’s privacy is critically important to the company, but didn’t comment further on Facebook’s interactions with the FTC.
“One of the ideas underlying the FTC consent decree is that we should be clear with people about how we use their information and give them meaningful choices around that,” Mr. Sherman said. “And that is what we are trying to do with this update.”
Mr. Sherman said Facebook intends to seek public comments on these proposed rules, and then revise them based on the feedback they receive. Facebook then plans to give its users 30 days to accept the new policies.
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