We’ve all had that experience where we look at a pair of shoes on the web, only to find ads for shoes showing up on our Facebook feed. It’s how advertisers on Facebook get us to buy things; obviously if we were looking at them, we’re more likely to purchase.
What: Facebook opened up its Off-Facebook Activity Tool to all its users.
Now Facebook brings a tool, soft-launched last August, to all of us that lets us manage this information transfer. Called the Off-Facebook Activity Tool, it will let you see what things are being sent to Facebook, and then delete them if you want.
“As of today, our Off-Facebook Activity tool is available to people on Facebook around the world,” wrote Mark Zuckerberg in a blog post. “Other businesses send us information about your activity on their sites and we use that information to show you ads that are relevant to you. Now you can see a summary of that information and clear it from your account if you want to.”
While it’s still part of Facebook’s business model to have this information passed along, a tool that lets you manage it is a nice step forward toward transparency and privacy control.
The worldwide release marks Facebook’s nod to Data Privacy Day, and the announcement also included information about two other initiatives. The Privacy Checkup Tool got an update recently, according to Zuckerberg, and you’ll soon see another prompt to run through it and make sure your account is as locked down as you’d like it.
Now you can see a summary of that information and clear it from your account if you want to.
In addition, Zuckerberg pointed out the Login Notifications settings, which rolled out in January 2020. These can alert you when you login to third-party apps, games, and streaming platforms using Facebook’s Login system. Because knowing is half the battle.
Via: MacRumors
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