Facebook reveals tighter security settings to protect user privacy

Facebook said it will make it more straight-forward for users to change their privacy settings and delete data they’ve already shared with the social-media company.

The announcement is part of Facebook’s efforts to answer the firestorm of criticism that’s arisen in the wake of revelations that data from 50 million people was accessed by political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica without their permission. Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg plans to testify in front of the U.S. Congress in the coming weeks, and the company has delayed unveiling a new home speaker product to reevaluate how it uses user data, according to people familiar with the matter.

Shares were up 1.9 percent in early trading at 7:36 a.m. in New York. The social-media giant’s stock has fallen 18 percent since the Cambridge Analytica news broke earlier this month.

Most of the security page updates have been in the works for some time, Facebook Chief Privacy Officer Erin Egan and Deputy General Counsel Ashlie Beringerwrote in a statement Wednesday, “but the events of the past several days underscore their importance.” The new system will allow users to access settings from a single place instead of having to go to some 20 different screens.

Facebook has produced multiple iterations to its privacy settings pages over the years, often in response to criticism that the system is too complicated for most people to understand what they are and aren’t sharing. From the new setting page, people will be able to delete specific things they’ve shared or liked in the past, stopping advertisers from having access to that information.

Users still won’t be able to delete data that they had given third-party apps on the platform previously, even if it was used for reasons other than what users agreed to. That data, downloaded over years of Facebook users freely giving apps such as games and personality quizzes access to their information, is largely still stored outside of Facebook’s grasp by the private individuals and companies who built those applications.

Launch of Facebook's home speaker delayed

Facebook has decided not to unveil new home products at its major developer conference in May, in part because the public is currently so outraged about the social network’s data-privacy practices, according to sources. The company’s new hardware products, connected speakers with digital-assistant and video-chat capabilities, are undergoing a deeper review to ensure that they make the right trade-offs regarding user data, the people said. While the hardware wasn’t expected to be available until the fall, the company had hoped to preview the devices at the largest annual gathering of Facebook developers, said the people, who asked not to be named discussing internal plans. bloomberg

The devices are part of Facebook’s plan to become more intimately involved with users’ everyday social lives, using artificial intelligence -- following a path forged by Amazon.com Inc. and its Echo in-home smart speakers. As concerns escalate about Facebook’s collection and use of personal data, now may be the wrong time to ask consumers to trust it with even more information by placing a connected device in their homes. A Facebook spokeswoman declined to comment.

Facebook has faced a public reckoning this month about its treatment of user data, sparked by reports that political-advertising firm Cambridge Analytica obtained information on 50 million users without their permission. The reports spiraled into a crisis for Facebook, which is sending Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg to testify in front of Congress on privacy in the coming weeks.

The social-media company had already found in focus-group testing that users were concerned about a Facebook-branded device in their living rooms, given how much intimate data the social network collects. Facebook still plans to launch the devices later this year.

At the developer conference, set for May 1, the company will also need to explain new, more restrictive rules around what kinds of information app makers can collect on their users via Facebook’s service. The Menlo Park, California-based company said in a blog post this week that for developers, the changes “are not easy,” but are important to “mitigate any breach of trust with the broader developer ecosystem.”