It’s time to vote on Facebook’s Statement of Rights and Responsibilities and Data Use Policy

In an act of absolute transparency, Facebook is now letting its over 900M users vote on proposed changes to its Statement of Rights and Responsibilities and Data Use Policy.

We told you about the changes that Facebook prosed in March and the fact that you had a window to suggest changes and provide the company with feedback. That period is over of course, and you now have the opportunity to vote.

Here’s what Facebook’s Elliot Schrage, VP CommunicationsPublic Policy and Marketing had to say about the next step of the process today:

In March, we restarted this process by posting revised versions of our SRR and Data Use Policy for notice and comment. We proposed changes to these documents to, among other things, improve them by adding examples and detailed explanations to help you better understand our policies and practices, comply with the law, incorporate feedback from regulators and individuals like you and reflect the addition of new products and services like Facebook Timeline.

Since then, we reviewed your comments and incorporated your feedback into some of the proposed changes. The comment period for submitting feedback has ended, but you can still have a role in helping to shape the policies that will govern Facebook.

The voting process starts today and ends June 8th, and all you have to do is visit this page. After you’ve reviewed the proposed changes, you’ll be able to vote on whether they should be introduced, or kept as is.

Schrage lends some humility to the process, which is a welcomed sight for such a large, and now public, company:

We don’t pretend to have the answers to these novel governance challenges. One thing we do know is that your participation and partnership in exploring possible approaches is vital. That’s why we’re look forward to your vote on our newly revised SRR and Data Use Policy.

By allowing its users to have a say in the process, Facebook hopes to avoid any situations where users are blindsided and start complaining. It’s quite a fascinating process, and I believe other companies should adopt similar things.