Tech
Facebook to allow users to view what data other sites share
Facebook will soon roll out a feature allowing users to review data third-party apps and websites share with the social network.
On Tuesday, Facebook unveiled the tool, called Off-Facebook Activity. The feature provides a summary of the data third-party apps and sites share with Facebook. Users will have the option to clear that information from their accounts.
“If you clear your off-Facebook activity, we’ll remove your identifying information from the data that apps and websites choose to send us,” reads a post from Erin Egan, Facebook’s chief privacy officer, policy; and director of product management David Baser. “We won’t know which websites you visited or what you did there, and we won’t use any of the data you disconnect to target ads to you on Facebook, Instagram or Messenger.”
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Facebook said it has gradually made the feature available to users in Ireland, South Korea and Spain, with plans to roll it out more widely in the coming months.
The feature arrives more than one year after Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg promised to offer the option for users to clear data gathered from other websites.
The update is part of the social network’s response to a data scandal involving Cambridge Analytica, a voter targeting firm with ties to the 2016 presidential campaign of Donald Trump.
Last month, the Federal Trade Commission ordered Facebook to pay a record $5 billion fine as part of a settlement over his mishandling of user data. The company also agreed to adopt new protections on data users share, and to limit Zuckerberg’s authority.
Via | Brett Molina
