Facebook will make it easier for its users to manage their own data in response to a tough new European Union law that comes into force in May.

"We're rolling out a new privacy center globally that will put the core privacy settings for Facebook in one place and make it much easier for people to manage their data," the social network's Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg said at a Facebook event in Brussels on Tuesday.

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is the biggest overhaul of personal data privacy rules since the birth of the internet and aims to give Europeans more control over their information and how companies use it.

Companies found to be in breach of the law face a maximum penalty of 4 percent of global annual turnover or 20 million euros ($24.50 million).

"Our apps have long been focused on giving people transparency and control and this gives us a very good foundation to meet all the requirements of the GDPR and to spur us on to continue investing in products and in educational tools to protect privacy," Sandberg said.

Facebook's use of customer data and tracking of people's online activities has already come under investigation from several EU data protection authorities.

Sandberg said Facebook had not done enough to stop the abuse of its platform and would double the number of people working on safety and security to 20,000 by the end of the year.