The new policy doesn't change the social network's data-handling practices, said Edward Palmieri, a privacy and product counsel at Facebook. Rather, the goal was to "apply the Facebook design experience that we bring to everything we do and extend that to our privacy policy."
In place of an existing document that Facebook admitted was "longer than the U.S. constitution – without the amendments," the draft policy contains chunks of information organized around more practical headings such as "Your information and how it is used" and "how advertising works."
"We struggle with really hitting home to users that we do not sell their data to advertisers," said Mr. Palmieri, so the new policy includes screen shots that show what advertisers see about Facebook users.
Privacy policies are often written by lawyers in notoriously vague language to provide companies legal cover for required notice about user data that's required by the Federal Trade Commission and other regulatory bodies. But in a recent report, the FTC noted that it was difficult for the average person to understand privacy policies – and that many people assume that just because a company has one, their privacy is being protected.
Efforts to simplify privacy policies and controls have gained steam across a range of companies, including Google Inc., which began offering a new privacy dashboard last fall that helps users learn what the company knows about them.
Facebook said it has been working on the new privacy policy since a corporate "Hackathon" last October, and consulted with a handful of privacy groups for feedback. "The new policy is much more of a user guide to how to manage your data," said Jules Polonetsky, the director of the Future of Privacy Forum, which was consulted by Facebook. "You might actually want to read this thing."
Some privacy advocates, though, were critical of rough edges in Facebook's policies. "It is very good for companies to actually be making privacy policies easier to understand -- but users should be looking for privacy policies that are not only readable, but actually protect their privacy," said Nicole Ozer, a policy director at the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California.
In particular, she said she had questions about what appeared to be a shift in language by Facebook about what it considers personal information. The draft new policy uses the term "your information," which it defines as "the information that's required when you sign up for the site, as well as the information you intentionally share."
Ms. Ozer said she was worried that definition didn't include user data such as the location of a mobile phone, IP addresses and the date that photos were taken. A Facebook spokesman said the company's intention was to treat these kinds of information exactly as they are in the current privacy policy, but it would take a look again after receiving feedback.
The new privacy policy is just the latest step by Facebook to address user and regulators' concern about privacy. Amidst a torrent of criticism about its privacy controls last spring, Facebook consolidated many of its settings into control panel designed to make it easier for users to adjust when and how their information was shared with other users and third parties.
In February 2009, user concern about changes that the company introduced to its terms of service gave rise to a new system whereby the users of the social network get to vote and comment on its governing document.
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