Facebook puts 1.5bn users on a boat from Ireland to California

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With the decision to legally shift the bulk of its users from European protections to much looser US privacy laws, we have the final word on how Facebook intends to apply European privacy protections outside of the continent: namely, it won't.

That said, Facebook does have part of a legitimate argument in shifting non-Europeans away from its European terms of service since the GDPR will require some changes that won't make sense outside the continent: such as the concept of a Data Protection Officer, or new requirements on moving data outside Europe.

Currently, Facebook has two corporate headquarters: one in California, where it is based, and an international one in Dublin, Ireland – where it receives preferential tax treatment.

US and Canadian users are governed by terms of service from the California HQ and everyone else is covered by the Irish terms of service. Next month, just prior to the GDPR deadline, Facebook will introduce new terms of service that retain Europeans under the Irish terms of service but put everyone else under the US terms.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/04/19/facebook_shifts_users/