30/01/2020
Here is a good explanation of Facebook's brand new 'Clear History' tool.
I checked my activity and have 225 websites and apps in my Off-Facebook Activity list. How many do you have?
Facebook's "Clear History" Tool Is Finally Here for Everyone!
Facebook released its new tool that lets you see how you're being tracked on other sites and in real life. Mark Zuckerberg had vowed back in 2018 to build a "clear history" tool for Facebook users. Now, it's here. 🔐
The new "Off-Facebook Activity" tracker unveiled yesterday (on Data Privacy Day) shows you an itemized list of the websites, apps, and real-life stores Facebook knows you've visited ... and lets you turn that tracking off, if you wish.
HOW TO ACCESS THE CLEAR HISTORY TOOL
📲 Mobile
Go to your Menu > scroll to Settings & Privacy > tap Settings > scroll down to Your Facebook Information and tap Off-Facebook Activity.
🖥 Desktop
Go to your Settings (blue down arrow top right) > click Your Facebook Information (top left) > click View next to Off-Facebook Activity.
On both mobile and desktop, you'll be prompted to re-enter your password before Facebook lets you see your list of activity.
You can choose to Clear History entirely, or remove access for individual sites/businesses, download your information, and manage future activity (choose whether you allow third parties to continue tracking you through Facebook).
If you do decide to turn off Future Activity tracking, a big warning comes up telling you that you'll be prevented from logging into apps and websites with Facebook because your activity will be disconnected from your account. (For this reason, personally, I'm leaving my tracking on because I'm happy to access numerous third party sites and apps via my FB login.)
🎯 WHAT IS 'OFF-FACEBOOK ACTIVITY?'
As most people know, businesses, apps and Facebook track our activity -- both online and offline. This is done via the Facebook Pixel (cookies), the Facebook Login and other tools.
Facebook gathers all this data and uses it to serve users more relevant ads, suggest groups, suggest Marketplace items, suggest businesses etc.
Most savvy online advertisers install the Facebook Pixel on their websites to allow retargeting, and better measure performance of ad campaigns (e.g. purchase conversion tracking).
🤔 Frankly, I'm certain that a very small number of Facebook users will go to any lengths to clear history and prevent future tracking. What do you think?
Facebook states, ❝Over the next few weeks we’ll show nearly 2 billion people around the world a prompt encouraging them to review their privacy settings. The prompt will show up in your News Feed and direct you to the Privacy Checkup tool, which we recently updated. This makes it even easier to adjust who can see your posts and profile information, strengthen your account security by turning on login alerts, and review the information you share with apps you’ve logged in to with Facebook.❞
Btw, January 28th, 2020 was 'Data Privacy Day' -- an international effort held annually on Jan. 28 to create awareness about the importance of respecting privacy, safeguarding data and enabling trust.
See Mark Zuckerberg's official announcement here:
https://about.fb.com/news/2020/01/data-privacy-day-2020/
Here's a helpful tutorial by Business Insider:
https://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-clear-history-offline-activity-tracker-tool-how-to-use-2020-1
And this is a very useful and detailed explanation of what exactly Off-Facebook Activity is:
https://www.facebook.com/help/2207256696182627/
