PRIVACY: Facebook to put 1.5 billion users out of reach of new EU privacy law.

Facebook members outside the United States and Canada, whether they know it or not, are currently governed by terms of service agreed with the company’s international headquarters in Ireland.

Next month, Facebook is planning to make that the case for only European users, meaning 1.5 billion members in Africa, Asia, Australia and Latin America will not fall under the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which takes effect on May 25.

The previously unreported move, which Facebook confirmed to Reuters on Tuesday, shows the world’s largest online social network is keen to reduce its exposure to GDPR, which allows European regulators to fine companies for collecting or using personal data without users’ consent.

Facebook’s entire business model is extracting as much data from its users as possible for free, then selling that data for as much as possible to its actual customers: Advertisers.

So of course Mark Zuckerberg will go to Congress and talk a good game about privacy, while continuing the same-old same-old everywhere he can.