Facebook’s privacy changes look different for Europeans and Americans

All 2.2 billion people who use Facebook will soon see changes to their privacy settings, in response to a sweeping new privacy law in Europe — but American users won't see exactly the same thing as their European counterparts.

That difference between the EU law and Facebook's agreement for US users manifests itself in a couple of ways. The most notable of these are policies that apply to children ages 13 to 15. (Technically, no one younger than 13 is supposed to have a full Facebook account anyway.) Under GDPR, parents or guardians have to give their explicit approval before teens of that age can see ads based on their interests on Facebook or its sister network Instagram. In the United States, since there is no comparable GDPR law, Facebook is going to give teens the option not to be served ads based on their interests, but it won't ask for parental consent.