Meta announces centralisation of user and privacy settings across its apps

Meta, the parent company of Facebook, announced today that it will be consolidating various user settings across its apps, including Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger.

Meta will relocate several settings to its "Accounts Center" feature, which was first introduced in 2020. This includes settings related to personal information, passwords, security options, and ad preferences. These changes will be accessible from the Settings page within each app.

Meta has announced an update to its settings experience, claiming that it will make it easier for consumers to use. However, the constant relocation of apps’ settings can lead to confusion for consumers, particularly with Facebook being notorious for rearranging its settings over the years. The new update will place the newly moved items in the Settings section, making it easier for consumers to find them.

The Accounts Center, which is now over two years old, was introduced during a time when multiple regulators and governments were investigating Meta for its antitrust behavior. The feature highlights the company's extensive data collection practices across its apps, but Meta hopes it can be used to demonstrate to lawmakers how it is making it easier for consumers to manage their data.

The update will allow consumers to make choices about their data that are more consistent across platforms. For instance, users will be able to set their ad topic preferences across both Facebook and Instagram in one place. In addition, Meta is updating data about users’ activity from partners' control, now calling it "Activity information from ad partners". This will help users see how their activity is sent to other websites and apps to power ads. Meta is also making changes to allow users to better understand their options when it comes to ads shown by Meta on other websites and apps, and is exploring ways to allow users to customize these experiences.

These updates follow the rollout of Apple's App Tracking Transparency (ATT) privacy changes on iOS, which impacted Meta's ad business and revenues. Since then, companies have been looking for ways to personalize ads for their users, as it leads to a more effective and profitable ad business. It is unclear at this time if these changes are tied to a larger attempt to work around ATT using direct user input.