Facebook has unveiled a new tool to control the use of your data collected outside the social network. Here is how to use it.
Facebook has just unveiled its new tool, Activity Outside Facebook. It allows users to regain control of the data that the social network collects about its activity outside the social network.
With this tool, Facebook users can now control the data that the social network collects on the sites they visit outside the platform. They can thus consult the content in their history, but also delete it by dissociating them from their account.
Accessible from the web interface but also from the Android and iOS mobile applications, access to this new module is not really easy. Here’s how to access it to effectively manage your activity outside of Facebook.
1. Go to Activity outside of Facebook
Access to Activity outside of Facebook differs depending on the device you are using. From a computer, go directly to the dedicated page, https://www.facebook.com/off_facebook_activity/.
On iOS, go to the app’s main menu, scroll through the options, and enter the Privacy Shortcuts menu. Then locate the section dedicated to Your Facebook data and enter the View or delete your activity outside of Facebook menu.
On Android, open the main menu by tapping on the Facebook icon at the top right, pull down the Settings and privacy menu and enter Privacy shortcuts. Scroll down to the section concerning Your Facebook data and enter the View or delete your activity outside of Facebook menu.
2. Check your activity outside of Facebook
From the module’s main menu, enter the Manage your activity outside of Facebook menu. Enter your password to authenticate yourself, and validate by pressing Send.
You should now be taken to a page with the complete history of your activity outside of Facebook. You will then discover that Facebook is aware that you have read press articles on certain sites, that you have viewed videos on a streaming platform, or that you have purchased a pair of shoes on a dedicated site.
Apart from the number of interactions that Facebook has received, you will not directly get detailed information about their content. To view them, you’ll need to Download Activity Details, an option that actually links to the Download Your Information tool, to get all the data Facebook has on you since you used the service.
3. Disable data collection
In the details of each item displayed in the list of your activities outside of Facebook, you will be able to individually choose to Disable future activity.
You can also choose to completely disable all future activity from the main page of the Your activity outside Facebook module. Deploy the More options menu, enter Manage future activity. You can then completely deactivate Future Activity outside of Facebook, or even manage the Activity that you have deactivated to individually reactivate the deactivated activities.
4. Clear history
Go back to the top of your activity list or come back to the main page of the module. If you wish, press Clear History and confirm your choice by pressing the appropriate button again to delete all activities outside of Facebook that the social network may have collected.
Finally, note that if you have previously opted to completely deactivate future activity, the elements contained in the history should, in principle, already have completely disappeared.