New Facebook Policies For Your Business

Late last week Facebooks CEO Mark Zuckerberg faced Senate and House committees in Washington, DC.

During this time Facebook introduced new terms around the use of customer data, tracking and measurement. Zuckerberg reiterated to lawmakers that Facebook will, in effect, apply the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) standards to its business globally.

The GDPR is the latest in a series of EU parliamentary measures designed to put the highest levels of protection around personal data. It’s important to understand that although these laws are in the EU, they are traveling beyond the borders of the EU and heading to America.

This will be coming into effect May 25th, 2018. Which gives business owners enough time to understand the new guidelines that are coming.

These changes focus heavily on Facebook Business Tolls which encompass a lot, such as: The Facebook Pixel, social plugins, Facebook login and account kit, APT’s and SDKs, as well as other platform integrations, plugins, code, specifications, documentation, technology, and services.

Some of these changes even hinder how you can present your case studies to current or potential clients, leading to some complicated matters.

We’re here to break down some of these changes and show how it affects your business.

Changes to Facebook Pixel

Facebook Pixel is primarily used to help businesses retarget potential customers by showing adds to those that went to the companies website or landing pages. In the new update, it’s facing some major changes.

The Terms for using Facebook Pixels and SDKs have also been updated for GDPR. Section 3.3 states:

In jurisdictions that require informed consent for the storing and accessing of cookies or other information on an end user’s device (such as but not limited to the European Union), you must ensure, in a verifiable manner, that an end user provides the necessary consent before you use Facebook Business Tools to enable us to store and access cookies or other information on the end user’s device. (For suggestions on implementing consent mechanisms, visit Facebook’s Cookie Consent Guide for Sites and Apps.)

Simplified: Site and app owners must obtain and manage user consent for Facebook to access, gather and store their data. This is a critical piece of GDPR that pertains to any company controlling or processing data on citizens, regardless of where they reside.

There will also be no pixel sharing, as stated in Section 3.1 of the Facebook Business Tools Terms states:

You (or partners acting on your behalf) may not place pixels associated with your business manager or ad account on websites that you do not own without our written permission

Simplified: You cannot gather data for ad targeting or measurement by placing your or your clients’ pixels on other sites you may have access to or any other site unless Facebook OKs it.

You need to notify Facebook of complaints

While continuing to fight against personal data breaches. Facebook is putting business owners in charge of complaints and issues users face about personal data. In section 1.5. It states:

You will notify us promptly in writing of any actual or threatened complaint or challenge related to the use of personal data under these Business Tools Terms and will cooperate with us in responding to such complaint or challenge.

Simplified: Business owners must be prepared to report to Facebook, in writing, any suggestion of a complaint or challenge over the handling or use of personal data when you’re made aware of it.

Reporting is now done internally

Section 2.2.2 of the Facebook Business Tools Terms explicitly states that advertisers are not allowed to share Campaign Reports or Analytics unless they have Facebook’s written consent:

We grant to you a non-exclusive and non-transferable license to use the Campaign Reports and Analytics for your internal business purposes only and solely on an aggregated and anonymous basis for measurement purposes. You will not disclose the Campaign Reports or Analytics, or any portion thereof, to any third party, unless otherwise agreed to in writing by us. We will not disclose the Campaign Reports or Analytics, or any portion thereof, to any third party without your permission, unless (i) they have been combined with Campaigns Reports and Analytics from numerous other third parties and (ii) your identifying information is removed from the combined Campaign Reports and Analytics.

Simplified: All Campaign Reports and Analytics need to stay internal and include only anonymized aggregated data. Keep screenshots and charts out of presentations, case studies and social media unless you have permission from Facebook.

Facebook Business Tools Terms

Some of the terminologies has also changed with this update.

  • “Sales Data” now is called “Customer Data.”
  • “User Information” now means “Contact Information.”
  • “Sales Transaction Data” now is “Event Data.”
  • “Matched Data” now means Event Data that is combined with Matched User IDs.
  • “Unmatched Data” now means Event Data that is not combined with Matched User IDs.
  • “Reports” is now “Campaign Reports.”
  • “OC” is now referred to as “Offline Conversions.”

There are many other changes to Facebook Business, but these are the main changes that are truly going to impact your day-to-day. If you’re interested in the full rundown you can read more here.  

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