Facebook users in UK will be moved to US terms and lose European privacy protections after Brexit, company announces

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Facebook users in the UK will be overseen by the company's US headquarters and rules after Brexit, the company has announced.

At the moment, people using Facebook in the UK are governed by Facebook Ireland, which mean they are covered by the EU's regulations.

The EU’s General Data Protection Regulation are among the strictest in the world and impose a host of requirements on companies like Facebook over the way they collect, use and share people’s data.

After the Brexit transition is completed, however, British users will be covered by the Californian rules of Facebook's headquarters.

The company will continue to comply with the UK's version of GDPR and it will not make any changes to privacy controls or its services, it said.

The new rules will be reflected in a change to Facebook’s terms of service for UK users that will arrive in the first half of next year.

Facebook’s announcement follows a similar change by Google, announced in February.

"Like other companies, Facebook has had to make changes to respond to Brexit and will be transferring legal responsibilities and obligations for UK users from Facebook Ireland to Facebook Inc," a Facebook spokesman said.

"There will be no change to the privacy controls or the services Facebook offers to people in the UK, and the protections of UK GDPR will also apply."