Facebook still planning ‘clear history’ feature to address user privacy concerns

Facebook has shared today that its previously announced “clear history” feature is set to be released sometime this year. It will allow users to see all the apps and websites they’ve interacted with and delete the data. Facebook will also begin allowing users to stop the platform from recording such data moving forward.

As reported by CNBC, Facebook’s CFO, David Wehner, confirmed that the company plans on releasing “clear history” sometime later this year. The feature was originally announced by CEO Mark Zuckerberg at the F8 conference last May.

Here’s how Zuckerberg described clear history:

You’ll be able to see information about the apps and websites you’ve interacted with, and you’ll be able to clear this information from your account. You’ll even be able to turn off having this information stored with your account.

However, he also noted that using the feature will mean a hindered user experience.

To be clear, when you clear your cookies in your browser, it can make parts of your experience worse. You may have to sign back in to every website, and you may have to reconfigure things. The same will be true here. Your Facebook won’t be as good while it relearns your preferences.

From a business perspective, Wehner noted today that clear history will make it more difficult to deliver targeted ads to users.

“Broadly, [clear history is] going to give us some headwinds in terms of being able to target as effectively as before,” Wehner said at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media & Telecom Conference 2019 in San Francisco.