Facebook rolls out tool to block off-Facebook data gathering

Soon, you could get fewer familiar ads following you around the internet or at least on Facebook.

Facebook is launching a long-promised tool that lets you limit what the social network can gather about you on outside websites and apps.

The company said Tuesday that it is adding a section where you can see the activity that Facebook tracks outside its service via its "like" buttons and other means. You can choose to turn off the tracking; otherwise, tracking will continue the same way it has been.

Formerly known as "clear history," the tool will now go by the slightly clunkier moniker "off-Facebook activity."
The feature launches in South Korea, Ireland and Spain on Tuesday, consistent with Facebook's tendency to launch features in smaller markets first. The company did not give a timeline for when it might expand it to the US and other countries, only that it will be in "coming months."
Jasmine Enberg, social media analyst at research firm eMarketer, said the tool is part of Facebook's efforts to be clearer to users on how it tracks them and likely "an effort to stay one step ahead of regulators, in the US and abroad."