Facebook rolls out Off-Facebook Activity controls

[harlan4096]

Facebook started to roll out a new privacy tool called Off-Facebook Activity to users from Ireland, Spain, and South Korea earlier today. Designed to give users of the site better control over data that Facebook collects about them while they interact with third-party sites, it is not exactly the tool that privacy advocates had hoped for.

The company plans to roll out the feature to users from other regions in the coming months. Last month, Facebook was told by the FTC that it had to stop certain privacy invasive practices.

First, the basics. Facebook collects data in several ways. It gets data from user activity on Facebook, e.g. what users like, comment on, view, or do on the site, and also from user activity on third-party sites or apps that have integrated Facebook services.

A Facebook user who is browsing NFL jerseys on a third-party site could get NFL jersey advertisement on Facebook if the app or site used to browse the items initially provided Facebook with the data.

Facebook notes that Off-Facebook Activity allows users of the site to "see and control the data that other apps and websites share with Facebook".

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