Don't Like Facebook's Privacy Policy? Vote On The Latest Changes

Even though 13 million of you have never touched your Facebook privacy settings, there are a whole lot of people who have not only fiddled with those settings, but have actively protested recent changes in the social network’s privacy policy. That’s why Facebook is now asking its one billion users to vote on their latest round of proposed revisions to that privacy policy.

Facebook says in a post in its Newsroom today that this is the first time since 2009, when it was privately held and only had 200 million users, that it’s asking for users to vote on its site governance.

As the Associated Press notes, the changes being voted on were introduced in May before the company went public, and include new sections explaining how it uses people’s information. Those changes create the potential for Facebook to show ads on outside website and target their pitches to your interests and hobbies as expressed on Facebook.

Facebook’s Elliot Schrage explains why it’s revisiting site governance again:

In March, we restarted this process by posting revised versions of our SRR and Data Use Policy for notice and comment. We proposed changes to these documents to, among other things, improve them by adding examples and detailed explanations to help you better understand our policies and practices, comply with the law, incorporate feedback from regulators and individuals like you and reflect the addition of new products and services like Facebook Timeline.

Since then, we reviewed your comments and incorporated your feedback into some of the proposed changes. The comment period for submitting feedback has ended, but you can still have a role in helping to shape the policies that will govern Facebook. Today we are posting the proposed revised versions of both documents and asking you to join our second global site governance vote. Voting will be facilitated by an application developed on Facebook Platform by Wildfire, and an independent auditor will examine the vote tabulation to further ensure accurate results.

Users can vote at this link until June 8 at 9:00 a.m. PDT. And your vote really will make a difference — “If more than 30% of all active active registered users vote, the results will be binding. If turnout is less than 30%, the vote will be advisory.”

The Facebook Site Governance Vote [Facebook Newsroom]

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