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Long-awaited Facebook 'clear history' tool coming sometime in 2019
Back in May of 2018, Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook announced a new “clear history” tool was on the way. The feature would help users avoid certain targeted ads on the Facebook platform, but it never showed.
Today, Facebook’s CFO David Wehner revealed that the Facebook clear history tool is still in development and will land sometime in 2019 (via Reuters). Wehner made the announcement during a Facebook investment conference call.
According to Chief Privacy Officer Erin Egan in 2018, the Facebook clear history tool will work similarly to clearing your browser cookies. In a blog post, she wrote, “If you clear your history or use the new setting, we’ll remove identifying information so a history of the websites and apps you’ve used won’t be associated with your account.”
Users would benefit from this tool by being able to start with a supposed “clean slate” when it comes to the deluge of targeted advertising users see in their Facebook feeds. It would also help assuage privacy fears about just how much information the social media platform knows about you.
However, since the tool has yet to surface not much is known about how effective it will be, nor how much information it will truly “clear” from your profile.
That being said, the fact that the tool is eventually coming is likely good news to those folks who are concerned by the numerous Facebook scandals that happened last year — but still won’t delete their Facebook accounts.
What do you think? Will you use a Facebook clear history tool when it arrives? Or are you already off Facebook? Let us know in the comments.