Facebook launches tool to let users control data flow
PARIS: Facebook,under pressure to ramp up privacy rules across its platform, said yesterday itwas rolling out a tool allowing users to control data that it receives fromother apps and websites about their online activity. The new tool is to giveclients access to their so-called "off-Facebook activity" - fed backto Facebook with the aim of targeting advertisements - and give them the optionof deleting it. "Off-Facebook Activity lets you see a summary of the appsand websites that send us information about your activity, and clear thisinformation from your account if you want to," it said in a statement."This is another way to give people more transparency and control onFacebook," it said.
Currently,commercial websites visited by a customer who also has a Facebook account maysend Facebook details of that visit, prompting the social network to show thatperson ads related to any product they may have searched for. With the newFacebook tool, users will be able to see a summary of information that otherapps and websites have sent Facebook through business tools such as FacebookPixel or Facebook Login. They then have the option of disconnecting thisinformation, or all future off-Facebook activity, from their account.
The new featurewill be rolled out first in Ireland, South Korea and Spain, and then everywhereelse over the coming months, Facebook said. "We expect this could havesome impact on our business, but we believe giving people control over theirdata is more important," it said. Last month, US regulators slappedFacebook with a record $5-billion fine for data protection violations in awide-ranging settlement that calls for revamping privacy controls and oversightat the social network.
"We'veagreed to pay a historic fine, but even more important, we're going to makesome major structural changes to how we build products and run thiscompany," Facebook's CEO Mark Zuckerberg said at the time, adding that"we're going to set a completely new standard for our industry," hesaid. - AFP