POV: Off-Facebook Activity Tool

Background:

Facebook has fully rolled out its ‘Off-Facebook Activity’ tool designed to give users more control over the data that third-party websites and apps share with Facebook about them.

Details and Implications:

Following the Cambridge Analytica scandal, Facebook announced plans for the ‘Clear History’ tool at its F8 conference in 2018. However, the plans were delayed due to technical issues caused by how the data is stored on Facebook’s servers.

This week on Tuesday 28^th January, which coincidentally was also the international Data Privacy Day, Facebook announced that the tool, with a new name - ‘Off-Facebook Activity’ - would now be available worldwide to all Facebook users. The tool was previously only available in Spain, Ireland, and South Korea as a limited beta.

‘Off-Facebook Activity’ allows any Facebook user to see a summary of which third-parties (other websites and apps) have shared their data and information with Facebook – information that is gathered even when they aren’t using Facebook. Crucially, it will only allow you to ‘disconnect off-Facebook activity from your account’.

This means that Facebook will continue to receive your activity as a user of the third-party website or app but it will not connect the information to your Facebook profile and use it to target ads to you. If you want to completely break the connection, then you would have to go via the privacy settings of the third party app or website to ensure that no data is sent to Facebook and also go into deeper privacy settings in the Off-Facebook Activity tool to ensure Facebook does not keep future off-Facebook activity saved with your Facebook account. You can also view and manage the apps and websites whose activity you have turned off from here.

Facebook uses data that it collects from other sources about users’ activities to show more relevant and targeted ads to consumers. The result of users removing third-party data will not result in ‘less ads’ for users but rather, as Facebook warns, make the advertising less targeted as less relevant ads will therefore be shown to users.

The social network has also suggested that it will prompt users to review their privacy settings over the next few weeks – but whether or not or how Facebook will advertise this tool to users is unclear. We expect to see an initial uptake of the tool with continued usage tapering off, however there are considerations for potential reductions in custom audience sizes which could bring a negative impact on media performance.

This feature means that targeting options powered by Facebook's business tools, such as the Facebook pixel, can't be used to target ads to a Facebook user. This includes Custom Audiences built from visitors to websites or apps. Advertisers will need to bear this in mind when developing strategies for these campaigns going forward. The feature will not impact Facebook’s measurement and analytics tools which are designed to protect people’s identity.

Summary:

The ‘Off-Facebook Activity’ tool is another step in the right direction to give users greater transparency and more control over how their data is used and protected. Crucially however, the “clear history” button in the ‘Off-Facebook Activity’ tool doesn’t stop third-parties from sharing user data completely, it just stops Facebook using it. In addition, warnings that ‘clearing history’ will log the user out of dozens of apps and won’t prevent you from seeing ads are designed to ensure users are clear on the implications of the action.

Further Reading: Tech Crunch | The Verge | Digital Trends | Facebook Business | Facebook