Facebook to allow users to clear browsing history
SAN FRANCISCO: Facebook Inc is going to let users see which websites and apps send the social network data on their activity -and then give them the option to delete it, with a new “clear history” tool.
Chief executivemark Zuckerberg, in a post on his Facebook account, said he will discuss the feature at Facebook’s annual F8 conference which begins on Tuesday.
Zuckerberg compared the new tool to the option of clearing cookies in a browser.
“To be clear, when you clear your cookies in your browser, it can make parts of your experience worse. You may have to sign back in to every website, and you may have to reconfigure things. The same will be true here. Your Facebook won’t be as good while it relearns your preferences,” he wrote.
The Menlo Park, Californiabased company is developing the feature in response to an outcry about data collection and privacy on its sites, following revelations that an outside developer improperly handled personal information on tens of millions of users.
The crisis has spawned questions from lawmakers and privacy advocates about who owns the data that users share on Facebook, and the company has taken other steps to address the concerns, including pausing some developer tools and auditing apps on its platform.
“One thing I learned from my experience testifying in Congress is that I didn’t have clear enough answers to some of the questions about data,” Zuckerberg wrote.
In a separate blog post on Tuesday, chief privacy officer Erin Egan wrote: “The past several weeks have made clear that people want more information about how Facebook works and the controls they have over their information.
“If you clear your history or use the new setting, we’ll remove identifying information so a history of the websites and apps you’ve used won’t be associated with your account,” she wrote.
It will take months to build the new Clear History feature, Egan wrote, adding that the company will work with privacy advocates, academics, policy makers and regulators for input on how to remove personal information.