WebProNews

Tag: facebook site governance

  • Instagram Adds Facebook Data Sharing to Privacy Policy (Without a Meaningless Vote)

    Earlier this month, Facebook held its third and final Site Governance vote. Facebook’s Site Governance system allowed users to vote on proposed changes to their terms and data us policies.

    While the vote was unique because it turned out to be a vote on the future of voting on the site, the actual data use policy changes included involved Facebook’s “affiliates,” most notably Instagram. Facebook wanted to give itself the ability to share user info with the newly-acquired Instagram.

    “This provision is standard in the industry and promotes the efficient and effective use of the services Facebook and its affiliates provide,” said Facebook. “As many people know, we recently acquired Instagram. This provision covers Instagram and allows us to store Instagram’s server logs and administrative records in a way that is more efficient than maintaining totally separate storage systems. We’ve added additional language to this proposal to clarify that the sharing of information among our affiliates is and will be done in compliance with all applicable laws, and where additional consent of our users is required, we will obtain it.”

    As you may have heard, those policy changes were adopted after Facebook only received around 0.7% of voter participation in the Site Governance vote. The company required 30%, or roughly 300 million users to participate in order to make the results binding. Although the majority of voters voted against the new policy changes, Facebook was able to pass them through under advisement, as that’s what the now-defunct voting system allowed for.

    Today, it’s Instagram’s turn to tell its users about the new data-sharing updates to their privacy policy.

    Instagram explains the change as such:

    In September 2012, we announced that Instagram had been acquired by Facebook. We knew that by teaming up with Facebook, we could build a better Instagram for you. Since then, we’ve been collaborating with Facebook’s team on ways to do just that. As part of our new collaboration, we’ve learned that by being able to share insights and information with each other, we can build better experiences for our users.

    We’re updating our Privacy Policy to highlight this new collaboration, but we want to make sure you understand that you still have control over who sees your photos. You still get to choose who can see your Instagram photos, and you still get to choose whether you post your photos on Facebook. So while we’re looking forward to working closely with Facebook to build better experiences, we aren’t changing the core features of the app that you’ve come to know and love.

    In a blog post, the company says that the new data sharing will help them “fight spam more effectively, detect system and reliability problems more quickly, and build better features for everyone by understanding how Instagram is used.”

    Along with the data sharing, Instagram has also updated their Terms of Service to include information on how to opt out of the company’s arbitration system. If users choose not to opt out, they are prevented from participating in class-actions lawsuits against the company.

    With the polices updated on both sites, Facebook and Instagram are now completely free to open up the user data flow. Instagram’s new privacy policy officially takes effect on January 16th.

  • Facebook Officially Kills the User Vote

    Facebook Officially Kills the User Vote

    Yesterday the voting period ended on Facebook’s third and final Site Governance vote, and we told you that the results overwhelmingly supported keeping the current SSR and Data Use polices. Of course, we also told you that it didn’t matter because not enough people voted to make it binding. With that, Facebook ended its attempt at “democracy” by eliminating voting that doesn’t matter with a vote that didn’t matter.

    Today, as mere formality, Facebook’s VP of Communications and Public Policy Ellliot Schrage made it official. Facebook has officially chosen to adopt the proposed changes to its policies.

    “While participation in the vote was minimal, this experience illustrated the clear value of our notice and comment process. Your substantive feedback on our proposals during the seven-day comment period, along with discussions with our global regulators, resulted in clarifications and revisions to those proposals. For example, we added new language to clarify our proposed updates on sharing information with our affiliates and our privacy controls. After considering these factors, we have decided to adopt the proposed updates to our SRR and Data Use Policy.” he said in a Governance note.

    The final tally was 589,141 against the changes and 79,731 for. That’s a total of 668,872 total votes, or less than 1% of the total Facebook users base. The results would have been binding if 30% of Facebook users would have participated.

    Schrage says that Facebook did their part to inform users of the vote, a statement which will see no argument here. It turns out that users simply aren’t that interested in policy changes or keeping their ability to vote intact.

    “We made substantial efforts to inform our users and encourage them to vote, both through emails and their news feeds. Despite these efforts and widespread media coverage, less than one percent of our user community of more than one billion participated. As stated in both policies, the results are advisory unless more than 30% of users vote”

    As mentioned before, this is merely a formal announcement from Facebook, as we all knew what the results were going to be from day one. Facebook says they will attempt to solicit even more user feedback on proposed policy changes, and “explore and implement new, innovative and effective ways to enhance this process in order to maximize user engagement.” But the vote is now dead. Now, we can move on.

  • Facebook Just Eliminated Voting That Doesn’t Matter with a Vote That Didn’t Matter

    And with that, Facebook’s tepid attempt at democracy comes to a close.

    Voting is over in Facebook’s third (and final) Site Governance vote. With just under 700,000 votes cast, Facebook users overwhelmingly voted against proposed changes to Facebook’s SSR and Data Use policies, as well as the decision to remove the current voting system for site governance. But in the end, the turnout was simply too low for it to matter.

    It’s not like we expected a different outcome. We knew that users would vote against the changes, and we knew that the vote would not receive enough participation to make itself binding. With the current (soon to be dismantled) Site Governance Vote structure, 30% of Facebook’s 1 billion+ users would have had to vote in order to make Facebook act on the will of the user base. Since somewhere around 0.7% voted this past week, the results are simply advisory. Of course, advisory means that Facebook can simply ignore them.

    We knew all of this because Facebook’s “democratic” Site Governance vote was set up to fail. The structure simply doesn’t allow for success. It’s not a lack of promotion on Facebook’s end that makes it this way. Another way of saying that is to say that Facebook isn’t trying to hide the vote. They sent out emails to every registered user reminding them to cast their vote. They allowed users to share the fact that they voted with their friends from inside the Site Governance Voting app. They made several public blog posts on the topic, which linked users to additional information on the changes to the policies.

    But mobilizing over 300 million people to vote on something that is pretty much immaterial to their daily lives is a task, to put it lightly. Previous Site Governance votes generated 665,000 and 342,000 votes, respectively – and this third and final vote eclipsed those numbers. But despite a record turnout, we still needed over 299 million more users to vote in order to give the vote meaning – which is virtually impossible (and always was). The early pace of participation hinted that the turnout would top one million – but it obviously slowed down in the final days.

    Where do we go from here? Facebook will still solicit user feedback on future policy changes. They’re going to hold Q&A sessions with policy people and may end up involving users in the process more than they ever have. But the vote will be gone. The vote that 99% of Facebook users didn’t care about enough to make a few clicks.

    So, most people won’t miss the vote. The vote never really meant anything, anyway. Plus, Facebook had a point when they said that the vote triggering mechanism (7,000 comments) was outdated and ripe for manipulation.

    But in the end, we can say that Facebook successfully eliminated voting that doesn’t matter with a vote that didn’t matter. Now, let’s move on.

  • Facebook Site Governance Vote on Pace to Break One Million Participants

    The third-ever Facebook Site Governance vote is on pace to shatter previous records and see participation from over a million users. Unfortunately, that’s still about 299 million votes shy of what is needed to make the results of the vote binding.

    Yesterday we told you that most Facebook users were voting against the proposed changes to Facebook policy, which include additions to the SSR and Data Use policies, as well as the abolishment of the current voting system. We also told you that it doesn’t really matter, as there’s no way that enough people will vote to make the results binding. Facebook requires that 30% of the member base (roughly 300 million, currently) vote, otherwise the results are simply advisory. And in this case, “advisory” simply means Facebook gets to do what they want and push the new policies through.

    The last Site Governance vote, which took place in June, saw 342,632 participants. By 3pm ET today, the number of participants on the current vote had already topped 300,000 – and it’s only day three. Facebook users have until December 10th at 3pm ET to cast their vote. So if the participation rate stays roughly the same, just over 1 million users will end up taking the time to vote.

    As you can see, the users that have already voted are overwhelmingly voting no:

    Although the vote is on pace to best the previous level of participation by over 200%, it will still only account for around 1% of all Facebook users.

    Facebook is sending out emails to all of its members reminding them of the vote, but barring some sort of Stanford band-level miracle, this will be the last time that Facebook users will ever be able to vote on proposed policy changes.

  • Everyone Is Voting Against Facebook’s Policy Changes and It Doesn’t Matter in the Slightest

    You probably know that Facebook just opened up its third-ever Site Governance Vote, allowing users to vote on proposed changes to the company’s SSR and Data Use policies. Or maybe you have no idea. Maybe you don’t care. That’s fine, but there are thousands of users that do know and do care – and their votes are as useless as Democratic votes in Mississippi.

    Like previous Site Governance votes, Facebook is letting users weigh in on proposed changes to the site’s governing documents. The big difference this time is that Facebook is also letting users weigh in on whether or not this should be the last time they get to vote on these types of changes. Facebook wants to get rid of the roughly three-year-old system that allows users to trigger a vote on policy changes with a comment threshold, saying that the site has “outgrown” the system.

    Have you participated in a Facebook Site Governance vote? Do you even care? Let us know what you think in the comments.

    Apart from the voting mechanism, Facebook wants to change their policy on sharing data with affiliates, as well as Facebook Messages and data visibility on users’ Timelines (for more on those policy changes, check here). As expected, the early vote looks to swing hard toward “nay” on these changes. But with Facebook’s current Site Governance voting structure, users simply have no real chance in affecting the company’s policy.

    That’s where Facebook and its users can agree: the voting system is flawed and the site has most definitely outgrown it. From Facebook’s point of view, the 7,000 comment threshold designed to trigger a vote lends itself to manipulation by over-zealous privacy advocates. And they’re right – it’s happened before. The last Site Governance vote back in June was triggered in large part by the efforts by a privacy group called Europe v. Facebook, who flooded the policy proposals with comments to force the vote.

    That vote saw a whopping .038% participation rate from Facebook users. Because of the low turnout, Facebook was able to push the proposed policy changes through even though a majority of users voted against them.

    And that’s the other reason why the current voting system is broken. Once a vote is triggered, users have about a week to cast their vote. Facebook then requires that 30% of the active user base vote in order for the results of said vote to be binding. If fewer than 30% vote, the results are merely “advisory.” Read: Facebook can ignore them altogether.

    Since Facebook has over 1 billion MAUs, that means that over 300,000,000 users would have to vote in order for Facebook to be held to the will of the user base. Last vote saw 342,632 participants. I’m sure you see the problem here.

    That’s why it’s incredibly unlikely that the current Site Governance vote, no matter how it turns out, will be a binding mandate from the people. There’s just not enough interest in the process. As it stands, Facebook’s voting system is too easy to manipulate and so demanding as to render it worthless.

    In June, when the vote received such a low participation rate, Facebook defended their 30% threshold, saying,

    “We made significant efforts to make voting easy and accessible – including translating the documents and voting application into several of the world’s most popular languages and providing extensive notice through users’ news feeds and desktop and mobile advertisements. There has also been widespread media attention and coverage of our notice and comment and voting process.”

    At the time, Facebook said that they would “review the process to determine how to maximize our ability to promote user engagement and participation in our site governance process in the future.” And as we now know, that review led to the conclusion that the whole thing be scrapped in favor of a more involved user feedback program for proposed policy changes.

    That brings us the the current vote, in progress. After nearly a day of voting, users are overwhelmingly against the new policies. Here’s what the vote looks like right now:

    Although 58,000 votes in less than 24 hours seems like a lot of interest, you have to realize just how small of a chunk of the entire user base it really is. Considering Facebook has 1 billion active users, the current tally represents .0058% of all users. That has to somehow make its way to 30% by December 10th. I think it’s safe to say that it’s highly unlikely, if not impossible.

    So, Facebook’s new privacy changes and the abolition of the voting process will go through as planned. While the current voting system is obviously worthless, I don’t think that a voting system is worthless. One that made it harder to trigger a vote, but easier to make that vote binding sounds like a pretty good option – at least to try. In reality, generating enough interest in something like a Site Governance vote would always be a difficult venture. But eliminating the vote entirely is sure to piss people off.

    The only problem is that it’s not going to piss off nearly enough people for it to matter.

    What do you think? Should Facebook get rid of the voting mechanism for proposed policy changes? What kind of system do you think would work best? How could the company prevent manipulation but allow users to have their voice heard? Let us know in the comments.

  • Facebook Opens Up Site Governance Vote on Voting

    Starting today, you have a week to cast your vote in what will most likely be the last Facebook Site Governance vote ever. The company has announced the opening of the latest vote, which covers Facebook’s attempt to get rid of the vote as a mechanism for dealing with governance and policy changes. With their vote, users will also be speaking out on certain other important changes to Facebook’s Data Use policy.

    A couple of weeks ago, Facebook announced that they wished to eliminate the current process of voting on proposed governance and policy changes. They claimed to have “outgrown” the system, which triggers a vote on any change if a 7,000-comment threshold is reached. In lieu of this voting system, Facebook has suggested open dialogue sessions and Q&As with privacy officers.

    The 7,000-comment threshold was quickly hit on this post, which triggered the vote that begins today. So yes, users now get to vote on whether or not to strip themselves of the right to vote.

    “Some of you were concerned that by ending the vote mechanism, you were losing your ability to shape the policies that govern Facebook. To be clear, our goal in modifying our site governance process is to make sure that we receive feedback from you in the best, most productive way possible so that we can be responsive to your input. Many of you provided us with ideas on how we could continue to meet that goal. You pointed out that our decision to update the process gives us an opportunity to innovate and search for new and better ways to enhance participation. We agree and will incorporate your suggestions into creating new tools that enhance communication on Facebook about privacy and governance,” says Facebook in an explanation of changes posted today.

    Other than the voting mechanism, this current Site Governance vote covers data sharing with affiliates, changes to Facebook Messages, and changes to data availability with regards to the Timeline. You can check out Facebook’s explanation of these policy changes here.

    To vote, held on over to the Governance Voting app. In order for a vote to be binding, 30% of Facebook users have to participate. That’s roughly 300 million users. If fewer than 30% turn out to vote, the results are simply “advisory,” meaning Facebook can do what they want. considering a whopping 342,632 users (.038%) voted in the last Site Governance vote, it’s safe to say that these changes will probably be pushed through in a week’s time.

    You have until December 10th at noon PT to cast your vote.

  • Facebook Asks for Your Vote on Stripping Your Ability to Vote on Future Changes to Site Governance

    Back in 2009, Facebook opened up the governance of site policies to its hundreds of millions of users – kind of. For the first time, they allowed users to vote on proposed changes to documents like the Data Use Policy and the Statement of Rights and Responsibilities. Since then, Facebook has held two Site Governance Votes – the most recent one taking place in June.

    Since 2009, a vote is triggered on proposed policy changes if the proposal receives a certain amount of comments (7,000). The last Site Governance vote was triggered by a coordinated campaign from privacy groups to force a vote on proposed privacy policy additions. They succeeded in triggering the vote, but failed in mobilizing enough users to participate int he vote to force Facebook to go their way.

    Now, Facebook wants that trigger to go away, saying they’ve outgrown it.

    Here’s what VP of Communications, Public Policy, and Marketing Elliot Schrage had to say today:

    Our goal has always been to find ways to effectively engage your views when we propose changes to our governing policies. That commitment guided our decision in 2009 to launch an unprecedented process for user feedback. When we held our second global site governance vote in June, we indicated that we would review our site governance process in light of the growth of both our community – to over one billion users – and our company – which is now publicly traded and accountable to regulators around the world. Our intention was to make sure the process still served its original purpose.

    As a result of this review, we are proposing to restructure our site governance process. We deeply value the feedback we receive from you during our comment period. In the past, your substantive feedback has led to changes to the proposals we made. However, we found that the voting mechanism, which is triggered by a specific number of comments, actually resulted in a system that incentivized the quantity of comments over their quality. Therefore, we’re proposing to end the voting component of the process in favor of a system that leads to more meaningful feedback and engagement.

    In lieu of voting on future changes to policy, Facebook wants to focus more on comments and open dialogue with users. They say they’ll be launching a “Ask the Chief Privacy Officer” feature that lets users submit questions and comments to Erin Egan via Facebook’s Privacy page. Egan will also host various privacy, safety, and security webcasts via Facebook Live.

    Facebook wants users to comment on the proposed changes. If they get 7,000 comments, users will be able to vote on the right to keep being able to vote. The tricky part is not getting 7,000 comments, however – it’s meeting the minimum threshold for voter participation.

    You see, to make a vote binding, 30% of all Facebook users must participate in the vote. If you do the math, that’s roughly 300,000,000 of Facebook’s 1 billion users.

    To make a long story short, that’s not likely. For the last Site Governance vote, a whopping 342,632 Facebook users voted, roughly .038%. That last vote centered on some proposed changes to Facebook’s Data Use and SSR policies.

    Yes, you’re reading this correctly. Facebook is having a vote on whether or not you should be allowed to vote anymore, and the results are all but already determined.

    These proposed changes also include a few updates to the Data use Policy, but the big thing here is voting on the right to vote. What’s up with that? Well, it’s clear that the mechanism to trigger votes is not proper for a site of over 1 billion. With a 7,000-vote threshold, anyone can trigger a vote, really. Plus, Facebook users may bitch about Facebook stripping their right to vote, but as I mentioned before – nobody really voted last time. Maybe Facebook should simply make it harder to trigger a Site Governance vote. That way, people would still have their vote but would be more invested in the issues at hand.

    What do you think?

    You can comment on the proposed changes as well as find links to those proposed changes here.