(DailyAnswer.com) – Meta has announced a new feature for its Facebook app for iPhone and Android that grants the company the ability to view links visited on the Facebook browser within the last 30 days, raising concerns about potential violation of users’ privacy. The setting is being turned on by default for all Facebook accounts on the app, and can be switched off under privacy settings. Though the change does allow users to view their link history, it also allows Facebook to use the data in targeted advertising, long a privacy concern for many users, despite Meta making changes in 2021 to allow for personalized ads that “know less” in the way of personal details about users.
Facebook has already come under fire for utilizing user data to train its AI. In this case, it is likewise possible for users to alter the extent to which their data is shared to aid the Llama 2 language model. Facebook has a long history of data breaches; as of October 2023, the company’s most recent data breach was from April 2021, which saw the data of more than 530 million users leaked on an online forum. In late 2022 Facebook agreed to a Privacy Settlement of $725 Million in relation to the 2018 Cambridge Analytica scandal that affected over 50 million users. In 2022 Meta was hit with a £2.3 billion lawsuit claiming that 44 million in the UK experienced having their data exploited without adequate compensation after signing up to Facebook.
In November 2023 Meta was sued by dozens of states who claimed that the company caused harm to teens and deliberately engineered Facebook and Instagram to be addictive to teens. The lawsuit also argued that the company placed advertising revenue before the mental and physical health of youngsters and that Meta falsely claimed to the public that its features were safe enough for young users. The company has claimed that it will not keep Link History or use the data for targeted ads once the feature is switched off, though it will take 90 days for the data to be deleted.
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