The social media giant has decided to switch legal control from its Irish unit to its headquarters in California. Facebook decided to shift the U.K. user’s control to its native corporate land following the Brexit transition preparations of the U.K.
With the following change, Facebook U.K. will no longer comply with the EU privacy laws. First revealed by Reuters, Facebook later confirmed it.
The change is expected to take place at the start of next year. Facebook’s move is followed by a similar action that Google took back in February. Alphabet’s Google announced to migrate U.K. users’ legal rights from its European subsidiary to the U.S.
According to Reuters, Facebook will update its users regarding the shift within the next six months. The social giant’s U.K. users will be given the option to leave Facebook’s services if they may have any reservations regarding the legal shift.
What will be the legal status once the shift occurs?
So, Facebook has finally decided to move out of the EU’s legal zone. Just like other companies, Zuckerberg’s social networking platform had to respond to Brexit. However, as per the company, the privacy controls will remain the same for U.K. users after the legal shift.
Facebook, in an official statement, mentioned:
“There will be no change to the privacy controls or the services Facebook offers to people in the U.K.”
The fact that UK users’ data will be migrated to the U.S. from the EU’s privacy jurisdiction will make a radical downgrade in legal privacy protection of users’ data. However, Facebook’s U.K. users will remain under the protection of the U.K. privacy law.
Looking at its record against digital privacy concerns, Facebook probably was keen to make this change because of strict EU privacy laws.
The EU regulators always keep their eyes on the tech titans, including Amazon, Google, and Facebook. Compared to the US, the EU prioritizes users and its privacy laws give more controls to users for handling their data.
What’s the UK’s take on the recent Facebook move?
The United Kingdom had long-known the consequences of Brexit and how the corporate world would react to it.
In September, the country published a new National Data Strategy through which data-sharing will become the new normal. This policy will support the economy in the pandemic crisis. But on the other hand, users might have to make compromises on their privacy.
Privacy propagandists fear that this will lead the country towards a lower data privacy control. They also have doubts that the trade deal between the allies will jeopardize users’ data privacy.
Some privacy advocates believe that after this new migration gets completed, the U.K. Facebook users would be under surveillance by U.S. intelligence agencies.
Tech giants like Facebook have been questioned on various occasions regarding user data tracking. It’s prevalent that Zuckerberg probably knows each move Facebook users make.
The officials of the U.K. information industry are in contact with Facebook. The U.K. government is making moves to ban strong encryption, which the social deity looks forward to implementing.
Facebook has ensured that they will make no changes to privacy laws for the U.K. users, and it would be no different from the legal switch.
Recently, things have started to shape up in the U.S. regarding new laws on privacy and social media.
Facebook and Google, both firms are facing antitrust lawsuits for being the Godfather of the internet world. However, the fact doesn’t change that U.S. privacy laws have always been lenient compared to those in the U.K.
