FB to allow users to clear browsing history with new feature

WASHINGTON: Facebook Inc Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg said on Tuesday the social network is building a new privacy control called "clear history" to allow users to delete browsing history.

Zuckerberg, in a post on his Facebook account, said he will discuss the feature at Facebook’s annual F8 conference which begins today. "This feature will enable you to see the websites and apps that send us information when you use them, delete this information from your account, and turn off our ability to store it associated with your account going forward," the company said in a separate blog post.

Zuckerberg compared the new tool to the option of clearing cookies in a browser, which he said can make parts of the user experience worse as users may have to reconfigure things.

Facebook said it will take a few months to build the update, adding the company will work with privacy advocates, academics, policymakers and regulators to get their input on the new approach.

Tech companies are under intense scrutiny about how they protect customer data after Facebook was embroiled in a huge scandal where millions of users’ data were improperly accessed by a political consultancy. "One thing I learned from my experience testifying in Congress is that I didn’t have clear enough answers to some of the questions about data," Zuckerberg wrote.