Facebook has announced that it is updating its data use policy in an effort to help people better understand how the company uses the information they share. As part of these changes, the social networking company is also indicating that it may start displaying ads on sites other than Facebook, based on the interests and hobbies that users express on their Facebook profile. This move comes ahead of Facebook Inc.'s expected initial public offering (IPO) this week.

The data use policy changes come in response to an audit by the Irish Data Protection Commissioner (IDPC) last year, Facebook said on May 11. The IDPC had asked Facebook for more transparency regarding how it collects users' data and uses it for advertising. The IDPC had given Facebook a spring deadline to implement its recommendations.

What You Should Know

Facebook intends to notify its impressive user database (more than 900 million users) through advertisements on the site and on its mobile apps. Through these changes, Facebook aims to help users understand how their data is used, and how the data use policy is changing. The company is also launching a Facebook Terms and Policies Hub to include all 10 policy documents, including a redlined changes version of the new privacy policy, now called Data Use Policy, along with explanations to those changes. Facebook also scheduled a live-streamed Q&A about the changes on Monday, May 14, and users will have the following week to give feedback on the changes before they are implemented.

No Substantial Changes

According to Erin Egan, Facebook's chief privacy officer, Facebook is not revolutionizing its business practices with these changes, but wants to "err on the side of providing too much information." As Facebook's overseas headquarters are located in Dublin Ireland, the company must comply with European data privacy laws.

Facebook's last policy revision was in September, and the new changes also include updates Facebook has made to its site since then. Such updates include changing users' profile pages to the new "Timeline" format, and adding an "activity log" feature that enables users to see all their activity on the site, as well as who else can see it. The "cover photo" on the Timeline and the gender of the user are considered public information.

No Strict Time Frame for Keeping Collected Data

The company has also changed the time frame for keeping collected information. While collected data was typically kept for 180 days, now Facebook said it will keep such data for "as long as it is necessary to provide services." This means the company could retain data for a shorter or a longer period of time. If a company creates a Facebook page for its brand, for instance, that information would not be deleted "simply because 180 days had passed," explained Facebook. "Instead, we would delete it when it was no longer needed - when the page owner deleted or closed its account."

(reported by Alexandra Burlacu, edited by Surojit Chatterjee)