If a new European law restricting what companies can do with people's online data went into effect tomorrow, almost 1.9 billion Facebook Inc. users around the world would be protected by it, but the online social network is making changes that ensure the number will be much smaller.
Facebook members outside the United States and Canada, whether they know it or not, are currently governed by terms of service agreed upon 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.