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Users' personal data is valuable to Mark Zuckerberg's firm. © REUTERS / Dado Ruvic

Facebook says it is " ready " for the entry into force of the California law on the protection of consumer privacy as of January 1st. A law that is more restrictive and more protective of personal data than the current US federal law. Facebook now claims to support this legislation as the US press continues to reveal new loopholes in the privacy protection of its users.

With our correspondent in San Francisco, Eric de Salve

In its statement, Facebook ensures that all companies should be held to the highest standards to explain what personal data is collected and for what purpose. But it is precisely because of the theft of private data from tens of millions of its subscribers for commercial and political purposes that Facebook is entangled in repeated scandals since that of Cambridge Analytica in 2018. A global scandal that has earned it five billion of fine of the American regulator for having deceived its users.

Adopted in this context the same year, the California Consumer Privacy Act is the first legislation of its kind in the United States. It aims to give users control of their personal data. A war chest on which Facebook's business model is based: $ 22 billion in advertising targeting profits in 2018.

In the wake of the new European legislation of May 2018, the California Privacy Act notably requires companies to publicize the type of private data they collect while allowing consumers to refuse their commercial use.

This Thursday Facebook is ready for the entry into force in January of this new California law on privacy. But the same day, a survey of the Bloomberg agency reveals that the firm records the audio discussions of some users without their knowledge to train its algorithms intelligence articifielle.

→ Listen again: Facebook: why are our personal data so valuable?