People Shopping With Phone (Unsplash)
Brexit has impacted Facebook in a way that suits the company’s needs. The social network is switching all of its user terms of service for people in Great Britain over to its American terms of service. Until now the Facebook’s users in the UK were protected by terms required by European Union regulations which are stricter than those in the U.S.
Google already made this change in February and the Facebook change will be implemented in 2021.
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“Like other companies, Facebook has had to make changes to respond to Brexit and will be transferring legal responsibilities and obligations for UK users from Facebook Ireland to Facebook Inc. There will be no change to the privacy controls or the services Facebook offers to people in the UK,” said the company.
While the United Kingdom does have strict regulations of its own which protect a user’s privacy rights, both that country and the U.S. have security laws allowing their governments easier access to data stored on a company’s servers.
In other Facebook news, the company may soon be able to literally read your mind. According to BuzzFeed Facebook has plans for a neural sensor to detect people’s thoughts and translate them into action.
What was that famous movie line from the 80’s? “Be afraid! Be very afraid!”
The idea that Facebook might be able to literally read our minds to better sell us stuff should scare people.
Facebook is also creating its own Cameo-like service. Cameo allows celebrities to charge a fee for personalized messages sent to people around the world. So if you want to get someone a birthday greeting from their favorite actor or athlete you can pay to have them record a birthday greeting made just for that person.
The new service is expected to be called Super. It will offer live, interactive video events.
Facebook Chief Technology Officer Mike Schroepfer said that Facebook’s “investments in technology aren’t just about keeping our services running. We are paving the way for breakthrough new experiences that, without hyperbole, will improve the lives of billions.”
So what does Facebook do to counter its negative image? Well the company just donated $150 million for low-interest loans to local governments and nonprofits in the San Francisco Bay area to provide more low income housing. This, of course, is a response to years of complaints that Silicon Valley has caused rent and property costs to skyrocket in that region squeezing out all of the local low income residents.
Facebook also boasts that it has helped 1500,000 small businesses around the world to promote their services. These are businesses which have been hurting because of the global Corona Virus crisis.
