Facebook tells Senate it’s started a privacy design lab based in Ireland

Facebook told the US Senate the company has launched a design lab that will work to improve the way people get informed about sharing their personal data.

The initiative, called TTC labs, was started “in recognition of the need for improved approaches to data transparency across all digital services,” and involves partnerships with others in academia, design and industry, Facebook told the Senate in its response to 2,000 questions posed after Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg testified at congressional hearings in April.

The lab “seeks to pioneer new and more people-centric best practices for people to understand how their data is used by digital services, in ways that they find easy to understand and control,” Facebook wrote on page 146 of the answers to the government.

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TTC stands for Trust, Transparency and Control, and is based in Dublin, Ireland, according to the group’s website. The site says it was initiated and supported by Facebook, and now has more than 60 other organisations involved, but it doesn’t name the other parties.

Facebook didn’t immediately respond to a request for more information. The company has recently been criticised for the design of its permissions to comply with the General Data Protection Regulation in Europe, which makes it simple for users to approve data collection and continue using the social-network app. Facebook’s response to questions from US lawmakers was released Monday by the Senate commerce committee.