Facebook is working on a ‘’Clear History’’ feature that will let you delete all your browsing history
Facebook has announced that it is working a new Clear History feature that will enable users to cookies and history. This, according to the company is one of the steps the company is taking to better protect people’s privacy after the recent revelations that it has been collecting and leaking users data.
These accusations came to the limelight after the Cambridge Analytica scandal that saw Facebook suspend the political data analytics company from its platform. The data analytics firm has been accused of harvesting up to 87 million Facebook user’s data without their consent and Facebook has over the past few months been trying to fix its image. It has been doing this by offering a number of explanations on how it collects and uses data.
‘’The past several weeks have made clear that people want more information about how Facebook works and the controls they have over their information’’ the company says.
The company says everyone should have more information and control over the data Facebook receives from other websites and apps that use its services.
‘’We’re starting with a feature that addresses feedback we’ve heard consistently from people who use Facebook, privacy advocates and regulators’
The Clear History feature will enable you to see the websites and apps that send Facebook information when you use them, delete this information from your account, and turn off Facebook’s ability to store it associated with your account going forward.
If you clear your history or use the new setting, Facebook says it will remove identifying information so a history of the websites and apps you’ve used won’t be associated with your account. Facebook will however still provide the apps and websites with aggregated analytics – for example, ‘’We can build reports when we’re sending this information so we can tell developers if their apps are more popular with men or women in a certain age group. We can do this without storing the information in a way that’s associated with your account, and as always, we don’t tell advertisers who you are.’’
Facebook is working with privacy advocates, academics, policymakers and regulators to build this feature.
Last month, the company also announced that it wants to give users more control over their data.
‘’’Whether it’s information from apps and websites or information you share with other people on Facebook, we want to put you in control — and be transparent about what information Facebook has and how it is used. We’ll keep working to make that easier.’’ David Baser, Facebook’s product manager said.
