New Off-Facebook Activity Tool Gives You Control Over Which Apps And Sites Can Share Your Data With Facebook

Facebook is rolling out the Off-Facebook Activity tool to global users so they can manage or delete data that third-party apps and websites shared with the social giant. Facebook first introduced this feature in 2018 at its annual developer conference and released it to users in select regions in 2019.

The tool was initially called Clear History at its first announcement in 2018. However, the tech giant believed the name might make users think the feature could wipe out their data published on Facebook. So it has come up with a clearer name.

The new name also better distinguishes data collection from data sharing. However, the real issue isn’t data collection. If the apps protected user data carefully, users wouldn’t have anything to worry about. But they end up being sold to support free, ad-supported websites.

Facebook explained that other businesses send it the information about users’ activity on their apps and sites, then it uses this info to show users relevant ads. But the Off-Facebook Activity feature will allow users to view a summary of that info and delete it from their accounts.

Most people don’t know how ad-supported websites work, so they think that Facebook listens to them through the microphones on their smartphones to show them targeted ads. However, the social giant not only has powerful, granular ad-targeting capabilities, but it also gets information from businesses that share the info they collect via their own apps.

Meanwhile, users are in the dark about which sites and apps are sharing information or what data is shared. This is especially hard to keep up with on phones as they often have over 80 apps installed, half of which are used monthly.

With the Off-Facebook Activity feature, users will be able to view a clear summary of the sites and apps collecting their data, how Facebook has received the info, how many interactions it has got, etc. Next, users have the option to break the connection from third parties to Facebook.

This feature is complicated and users have to provide their passwords to view this tool even if they are currently logged in. Keep in mind that “clear history” doesn’t stop third parties from sharing user data. And the tool warns users that clearing history will log them out of all the apps while not preventing them from seeing ads.

The Off-Facebook Activity tool will be made available worldwide and the social giant says that it will release a prompt in the next two weeks encouraging users to review the privacy settings in their accounts. Users will see this prompt in their News Feed, it will also direct them to the Privacy Checkup tool.

This month, Facebook has already begun alerting users if they sign into a third-party app when they log into their Facebook accounts. This way, users will know which apps have a connection to the social network, allowing them to make changes or clear their data if they wish to.

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