Facebook, Messenger and Instagram will be managed jointly. The settings for advertisements, for example, but also passwords will in future be determined centrally in the account manager. This should of course make it easier for users to find and control everything. However, the accounts must first be linked. It is unclear whether there have been any changes to the consent practices penalized by the Irish Data Protection Authority.
In the new account manager On the one hand, it is about the classic settings, such as the profile – from contact options to deleting the account. In addition, all security settings can be made there, password, two-factor authentication and alarm, as well as payment methods and cookie preferences.
A central point is also the selection of advertising options and information. For example, the area where information from outside the meta platforms used for advertising converges is now called “Activity Information from Ad Partners”. There, users should be able to see better how other websites and apps send information to Meta so that suitable ads are displayed there.
Many (wrong) ways lead to the settings
Meta also wants to better explain why which ads are shown to whom – and what options users have to prevent or at least change this. Of course, especially with regard to the advertising that you would like to see.
The Account Center is currently being made available worldwide. However, the settings in the individual apps remain valid if someone does not want to switch to the central manager. Accounts can be removed from the center at any time. So far, for example, Facebook and Instagram have had different options for ads.
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Furthermore, notifications, any selection that affects the device and options for interaction as well as off-Facebook activities cannot be controlled via the manager. These are the websites that redirect to meta information. The variety and ways in which you can select and set something in Meta and the individual services does not make it easy for users, there are often more errors and confusion. It would be desirable if the change now brings an actual improvement.
To get to the settings, you have to go to the burger menu in the bottom right corner of the Facebook app, for example, go to the settings, and at the bottom you will find the meta account overview.
Ireland’s data protection regulator DPC fined Meta twice this week. As with Facebook and Instagram, in a second proceeding she also objects to WhatsApp selling consent to personalized advertising as a service and thereby making it mandatory. Meta has to pay 390 million euros for Facebook and Instagram, and 5.5 million euros for WhatsApp. However, data protection officer Max Schrems, who had complained with his club Noyb, complained that the penalties were far too low. In his opinion, the DPC had to estimate 4.36 billion euros. According to the decisions in the two cases published by the European Data Protection Board (EDPB), “the DPC ignored the illegal income generated by Meta,” criticizes Noyb.
(emw)
