Social media giant Facebook has launched a new tool that lets users see how it tracks their off-Facebook activity. The company owned by Mark Zuckerberg tracks the websites and apps that users visit. According to Facebook, it even tracks real-life stories to target advertisements to users. The new ‘Off-Facebook Activity’ tool is available to users on Facebook around the world. The tool will give users more control over their privacy. With the help of this tool, users will be able to disconnect their identities from browsing history. This will prevent Facebook from tracking which websites and apps users visit. Zuckerberg said the new tool marks a new level of transparency and control.
The new tool fulfills a long-standing promise from Zuckerberg. The Facebook CEO in 2018 promised to develop a tool to clear history for users. The vow from Zuckerberg came after Facebook was mired in the Cambridge Analytica scandal. The scandal had invited a bad image for the company wherein several apps accessed the personal data of over 50 million users improperly. Zuckerberg said the new tool will give over two billion Facebook users direct control over their privacy. The company said over the next few weeks it will show users a prompt, encouraging them to review privacy settings. The prompt will show up in the News Feed. It will direct users to the Privacy Checkup tool.
The new tool makes it further easier to adjust who can see profile information and posts. Besides, it also gives an opportunity for users to review the information which they share. Facebook has also introduced alerts for third-party logins. Facebook Login enables users to sign in to other apps and services using Facebook credentials. These notifications will alert users when they use Facebook Login to sign in to other apps and services like streaming platforms and games. The tool will keep users aware of how their account is being used. Zuckerberg said the main objective is to build much stronger privacy protections for users.
