Facebook’s ‘clear history’ feature will finally arrive this year

Facebook’s ‘clear history’ feature will launch later this year, according to the social media network’s CFO David Wehner.

The feature was first announced at the F8 conference in 2018, with Mark Zuckerberg describing how feature as “a simple control to clear your browsing history on Facebook – what you've clicked on, websites you've visited, and so on.”

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The ability to control what Facebook shares about you with other sites, as well as being to see what apps and websites you’ve interacted with using your Facebook account, is a feature that many users have been asking for, especially in light of several high profile privacy controversies that have plagued Facebook recently.

As CNBC reports, Wehner revealed that the feature is coming later in the year at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media & Telecom Conference 2019 in San Francisco.

Ad tracking implications

While the ‘clear history’ feature will be broadly welcomed by users and privacy advocates, it will have implications on what adverts are shown to you.

As Wehner explained, the feature is “going to give us some headwinds in terms of being able to target as effectively as before.” With Facebook unable to use data collected by third parties, it could struggle to target relevant ads.

However, for most people this will be a price worth paying for greater control over the information Facebook shares about them. Plus, the social media network has plenty of other methods for harvesting user data to supply relevant adverts.

• Don’t want to wait for the feature? Here’s how to delete your FaceBook account instead