How to Clear Data Facebook Collects About You
In today's cyber world we all are using social media apps in our day-to-day life. Such as Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp, Snapchat, etc. but we don't know the fact that this apps tracking us and know very much about us.
It's not their fault we only give permissions to them to do so. Indirectly we allow them to track us as we don't read which permission we are allowing them is it necessary or not.
Facebook is one the biggest advertising platform and that's because it knows a lot about you, me and everyone else.
Facebook uses many tools to track people across the Internet, whether they have an account with the social networking site or not, and most of them rely on the online activity data other apps and websites share with Facebook.
However, after facing worldwide criticism over privacy and data breach controversies, Facebook last summer announced a privacy tool, called Off-Facebook Activity, which gives users more control of their data collected by Facebook.
Starting today on Data Privacy Day 2020, the Off-Facebook Activity feature is now available to every user around the world, which was initially made only available to users in Ireland, South Korea, and Spain for testing.
Initially introduced as "Clear History," the tool offers users a clear summary of what information Facebook holds on you based on other apps you used or websites you've visited and also lets you delete it from your account if you want to.
How to Use Off-Facebook Activity Tool?
However, it's important to note that the feature doesn't actually allow users to delete their browsing information from Facebook servers; instead, it simply lets users dissociate collected data from their Facebook account.
For example, I tried it and found that over 1000 apps and websites had shared my online activity with Facebook in the past 180 days, many of which are news, banking, and healthcare organizations, and even LinkedIn.
It's not their fault we only give permissions to them to do so. Indirectly we allow them to track us as we don't read which permission we are allowing them is it necessary or not.
Facebook is one the biggest advertising platform and that's because it knows a lot about you, me and everyone else.
Facebook uses many tools to track people across the Internet, whether they have an account with the social networking site or not, and most of them rely on the online activity data other apps and websites share with Facebook.
However, after facing worldwide criticism over privacy and data breach controversies, Facebook last summer announced a privacy tool, called Off-Facebook Activity, which gives users more control of their data collected by Facebook.
Starting today on Data Privacy Day 2020, the Off-Facebook Activity feature is now available to every user around the world, which was initially made only available to users in Ireland, South Korea, and Spain for testing.
Initially introduced as "Clear History," the tool offers users a clear summary of what information Facebook holds on you based on other apps you used or websites you've visited and also lets you delete it from your account if you want to.
How to Use Off-Facebook Activity Tool?
However, it's important to note that the feature doesn't actually allow users to delete their browsing information from Facebook servers; instead, it simply lets users dissociate collected data from their Facebook account.
For example, I tried it and found that over 1000 apps and websites had shared my online activity with Facebook in the past 180 days, many of which are news, banking, and healthcare organizations, and even LinkedIn.
- To access Off-Facebook Activity tool:
- Go to 'Settings & Privacy' in your Facebook app,
- Select 'Off-Facebook Activity,'
- On the next screen, you are provided with a list of all the websites and apps that had shared your data with Facebook.
- You can choose specific apps to see how many interactions you had with them.
- You can download activity details by clicking on the number of interactions and clicking Download Activity Details at the bottom of the popup.
- If you're very concerned about the data that Facebook holds on you, it's worth clearing your history by clicking on the 'Clear History.'
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