Get your Vote on. Facebook Style

The voting is open.  On Friday, Facebook began allowing users to vote on changes in the social networking giant’s privacy policy (what it calls its’ “data usage policy”).   Voting will remain open until June 8, 2012 at 9:00am PDT.  With nearly one billion users, Facebook is larger than most countries.  Every day millions of us log in to tell the world where we are and what we are doing.  We all know Facebook collects this information but what we are a little sketchy on is what they do with it.  The data usage policy explains how Facebook will use our info.

This is not the first time that Facebook has opened itself up for a bit of direct democracy. Back it 2009, when it had a mere 200 million users and was still privately owned, the website allowed users to vote on their data usage policy.  

It is likely that the new policy is a result of European authorities pushing Facebook to reveal more on its data usages.  Facebook is stating that the “vast majority of the proposed changes represent additional explanations of current practices rather than substantive changes in how [they] use your data.”  If you are like me and think in track changes, you will find this document very helpful as it illustrates changes in the policy.

Among the most important of the changes to the policy is one that opens the door for Facebook to begin showing you ads when you are on other websites as well.  Additionally, it allows Facebook to keep user data for more than 180 days.

It is unlikely these changes will significantly affect your Facebook experience; however it will certainly be interesting to see how the company handles this vote and whether it will use the democratic method in the future.  In order for this vote to be binding, 30% (about 270 million users) of Facebook’s users must vote one way or another.  If that doesn’t happen, the vote is merely “advisory.”  

It is also worth noting that Facebook is not advertising the opportunity to vote.  There is no message when you login to the site.  There is no banner at the top of your page.  To vote, you have to go to the governance page.

The group “Our Policy” wants clearer, more user-friendly Facebook policy that better protects privacy.  They encouraged users to leave 7,000 comments on Facebook’s governance page.  You can view their demands here.

You may cast your vote here.

-Nicole P