Facebook has launched a fresh effort to quell the firestorm over the hijacking of personal data, unveiling new privacy tools and settings to give users more control over how their information is shared.
The new features follow fierce criticism of the social network giant after it was revealed that the personal data of tens of millions of users was harvested by a British firm linked to Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign.
The company acknowledged that it needed to "do more to keep people informed," but said the changes have been "in the works for some time."
"We're taking additional steps in the coming weeks to put people more in control of their privacy."
"While this is common industry practice, we believe this step, winding down over the next six months, will help improve people's privacy on Facebook."
"The solution isn't shifting the burden to the user because the problem is the negative externalities of the business model."
Jennifer Grygiel, a Syracuse University professor of communications, said the new privacy settings and tools "are so obviously important to users that one has to wonder why this wasn't already done."
She said Facebook has "some of the best talent in the industry" and that "their old interface was not a mistake, it was by design."
Dylan Gilbert of the consumer group Public Knowledge said Facebook's moves "are welcome steps forward" but "do little to remedy a larger systemic problem."
"Facebook similarly lacks business incentives to engage in responsible data collection because disgruntled advertisers don't have anywhere comparable to go."
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