Facebook Now Allows Users Control Third Party Access to Personal Information with Global Roll Out of its Off-Facebook Activity Tool

Have you ever visited a site, let’s say an ecommerce site, and looked through their catalogues, or even went on to order some items only for you to go on Facebook and see those items, or related ones, suggested for you in Facebook ads? Eish…

You must have wondered if Facebook bugged your phone or something.

Well you are seeing those ads tailored for you because Facebook is often giving them information from the websites and apps you search Off-Facebook.

These platforms are those that use Facebook functions like the Like button, option to log in with Facebook account, or through a piece of code embedded in their systems. And they share your data with Facebook, so their ads can better target potential customers, since the platform is one of the best at that.

According to Facebook, it receives these data to provide users with “a more personalised experience”, showing ads that are more relevant to you.

But Facebook has rolled out a new feature that could help users address these privacy concerns. With the new “Off-Facebook Activity” tool, users will be able to control the apps and websites that are tracking their activities and sending reports back to Facebook for ad targeting.

The feature was initially rolled out last year, but was limited to just 3 countries, until now.

However, the Off-Facebook Activity tool will not erase, in entirety, your user data. Instead, it will stop some of those data from being associated with your individual account. You could also clear the history.

“There are a number of ways you can control your information on Facebook and we’re always looking at more ways for you to do this. That’s why from today, our Off-Facebook Activity tool will make it easy to manage which apps and websites can access your information.”

Steve Hatch, VP, Facebook Europe division.

So if you are concerned about this data Facebook holds on you, you can go to your settings on Facebook to get it resolved. In the settings you will see the Off-Facebook activity option under the Facebook Information section.

Here you will see a compiled list of apps and websites that have shared your activity with Facebook which you can clear.

There are also other options like stopping all future activities from specific sites or even barring the entire future off-Facebook activities. So it’s an option for you to select from, whether you want to see more targeted ads or you want to deny Facebook your data.