Facebook itself doesn’t quite know what it uses for most of its proprietary personal user data, according to a new internal company document leaked online. At least he doesn’t seem to have a clue how to explain it.
Privacy engineers on Facebook’s Advertising and Business Product team wrote the report last year for the company’s leadership to read it. The report details how Facebook may be addressing the growing number of data usage regulations, including new privacy laws. The authors of the report note that the platform, which has an estimated 1.9 billion users, is often in the dark about personal data.
Engineers underline that Facebook will have a hard time informing countries about how it will handle citizens’ data. “We don’t have enough control and accountability over how our systems use data,” they say, “so we need to prepare controlled policy changes or external commitments, such as that we won’t use data X for purpose Y.”
Facebook said in a statement on the subject, “Given that this document does not disclose our extensive processes and controls to comply with privacy regulations, it would be wrong to conclude that it is incompatible.” “New privacy regulations around the world impose different requirements, and this document reflects the technical solutions we have created to manage data and scale up the existing measures we have in place to meet our obligations.”
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