Off-Facebook Activity: All you need to know about Facebook’s clear history tool

After almost a year after Facebook announced at its developer conference that it would begin letting users control their data being shared with the platform from third parties, the social media giant has announced a clear history tool – Off-Facebook Activity.

The Off-Facebook activity is rolled out first in Ireland, South Korea, and Spain, and will be launched in India and other countries in the next few months. The new clear history tool came into fruition after the Cambridge Analytica scandal and is designed to give users better control over their data privacy when shared through third-party apps or at the cost of targeted advertising.

Once rolled out in India, the clear history tool will come as a new service called ‘Off-Facebook activity.’ This is another way to give people more transparency and control on Facebook, along with recent updates to our Ad Library, updates to ‘Why am I seeing this ad? and the launch of a new feature called ‘Why am I seeing this post?’

And when you will open it, the feature will tell you which apps and websites are tracking your information and sending data back to Facebook for targeted advertising. Hitting the ‘Clear History’ button will wipe out all the information from your Facebook account.

Facebook has also warned users that with the off-activity feature they are also likely to see apps and websites in their account activity that they do not recognise. For instance, a webpage that you haven’t visited might pop-up that could be because a friend of yours used your phone to search for some information.

With the Off-Facebook Activity, users can also disconnect all the information from your account if you want to; and can also choose to wipe out all of the future off-Facebook activity from your account.