Security News > 2022 > January > Facebook Launches 'Privacy Center' to Educate Users on Data Collection and Privacy Options

"Privacy Center provides helpful information about five common privacy topics: sharing, security, data collection, data use and ads," the social technology firm said in a press release.

Users part of the pilot will be able to access Privacy Center by navigating to Settings and Privacy on the desktop version of Facebook.

Privacy Center joins a plethora of other tools already offered by the tech giant, including Privacy Shortcuts and Privacy Checkup, both of which guide users through some of the privacy and security settings on the platform and review their choices.

The so-called "Dark patterns" - subtly coercive user interface design - came under the spotlight in June 2018, when a report by the Norwegian Consumer Council, titled Deceived by Design, revealed how "Default settings and dark patterns, techniques and features of interface design meant to manipulate users, are used to nudge users towards privacy intrusive options."

In punishing users for choosing privacy over sharing, the report called out Facebook and Google's "Privacy intrusive default settings, misleading wording, giving users an illusion of control, hiding away privacy-friendly choices, take-it-or-leave-it choices, and choice architectures where choosing the privacy friendly option requires more effort for the users."

A subsequent study of Facebook's desktop user interface undertaken by researchers from the University of Bremen in March 2021 noted that "The way in which Facebook handles control over privacy settings sets an example for a novel dark pattern," adding by "Placing all privacy settings behind several interface layers, Facebook actively offers a well designed but incomplete alternative to handle them."

News URL

https://thehackernews.com/2022/01/facebook-launches-privacy-center-to.html