Facebook has a problem that only now, some of us are beginning to catch up to. Facebook, like others, has a customer. It is not me and it is not you. Collectively, the had 2.2 billion monthly active users are the product. It is advertisers who are the customers. They pay for access to the product. They make billions off of this model. They don’t have to but that is the road they went down. Live by the sword and you may die by the sword.

What is the product Facebook is selling? I, like you. are the product they are making billions off of. My interests, in this model, are not represented. Facebook only wants as much data about me (and you) as they can get their hands on to make more money. It doesn’t have to be that way.

Would I pay for it? I pay plenty (and you do too) for technology that is useful. Amazon sells me products. Apple does as well. Microsoft has made billions this way. The list goes on and on. Facebook, I will assert, is not really concerned about my privacy beyond not seeing it’s product (you and I) flee in droves. No product, no money.

So … Facebook does not have a privacy problem as much as they have a business model problem. It would help if they would figure that out.

Below is from : Axios

Facebook said Wednesday it will be updating its terms of service to make its commitment to user privacy more explicit. Starting today, it’s also overhauling its data policy to better define what data it collects and how they use it, as well as making the privacy tools easier to find.

What’s changing:

• The settings menu on mobile will be redesigned from top to bottom to make things easier to find. (Instead of having settings spread across nearly 20 different screens, they’re now accessible from a single place.)
• It’s cleaning up outdated settings so it’s clear what information can and can’t be shared with apps.
• It’s creating a new Privacy Shortcuts menu to make info about privacy, security and ads easier to find. Users can add layers of protection to their accounts (like two-factor authentication), review what they’ve shared and delete if they want, and manage who sees their posts and profile information all within the new menu.

Why it matters: While Facebook says the privacy updates have been in the works for a while, the past two weeks of reckoning around data privacy have put an emphasis on the things Facebook should be doing to make privacy options more transparent and easier for users to understand.

Go deeper: Sara Fischer has more here.

Meanwhile:

• Bloomberg reports that Facebook is delaying its planned introduction of an always-listening smart speaker due to the swirl of privacy concerns. (That’s probably a wise read of the current environment.)
• CEO Mark Zuckerberg is likely to appear before one or more committees on Capitol Hill.

Source: Login – Axios