Facebook launches ad campaign to promote privacy controls

As it seeks to rebuild its reputation following the Cambridge Analytica scandal, Facebook is to launch a consumer marketing campaign to explain how users can better control their privacy settings.

‘Privacy is Personal’, created by Possible, seeks to improve awareness of the privacy features the social media giant offers in the UK, from sharing on the News Feed to ad preferences.

“We often hear that people aren’t aware that some of these features exist, or don’t know where to find them,” said Aaron Hoffman, UK marketing manager for Facebook. “So we have a responsibility to get the word out so that people know how to manage their privacy settings.”

The campaign will run across various channels in the UK over the course of the next 10-weeks, including Facebook and Instagram, video-on-demand, digital, out-of-home, cinema, print, and audio.

Last month, Facebook was ordered by the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to pay a record $5bn fine to settle privacy concerns. It was also told to establish an independent privacy committee that Facebook’s chief executive Mark Zuckerberg will not have control over.

The FTC had been probing how the political consultancy Cambridge Analytica had been able to harvest the data of 87 million Facebook users. The fine was the largest ever imposed on any company for violating consumer privacy.