Facebook now lets you control data shared with platform

Facebook on Tuesday rolled out a tool that allows users to see and control the data that apps and websites share about them with the social networking platform. "... today we're introducing a new way to view and control your off-Facebook activity," Facebook's Erin Egan, Chief Privacy Officer, Policy, and David Baser, Director of Product Management, wrote in a blog post.

The tool, "Off-Facebook Activity" lets users see a summary of the apps and websites that send to Facebook information about a user's activity, and clear this information from their account if they want to.

"This is another way to give people more transparency and control on Facebook," Egan and Baser wrote.

Imagine a clothing website wants to show ads to people who are interested in a new style of shoes. They can send information to Facebook, saying someone on a particular device looked at those shoes.

If that device information matches someone's Facebook account, the social networking platform can show ads about those shoes to that person.

With Off-Facebook Activity, you can see and control the data that other apps and websites share with Facebook.

So users can now see a summary of the information other apps and websites have sent Facebook through its online business tools like Facebook Pixel or Facebook Login.

They can also disconnect this information from the account if they want to and choose to disconnect future off-Facebook activity from the account.

"You can do this for all of your off-Facebook activity, or just for specific apps and websites," Egan and Baser wrote.