Facebook’s ‘Clear History’ button is basically a farce

Jeff John Roberts here, filling in for Adam.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is talking tough. Days after an earnings call in which he declared his new goal isn’t to be “liked” but to be “understood,” he told a Utah confab that his company’s commitment to free speech is “going to piss off a lot of people.” (Political ads will remain allowed on the platform.)

The company’s approach to consumer privacy might do the same. Case in point: Facebook’s “clear history” button that Zuckerberg promised to deliver in the wake of 2018’s Cambridge Analytica data breach, implying people would be able to opt out of Facebook collecting their data from third parties.

Now, the new tool is finally available in the U.S. But, alas, it is virtually ineffective.

Facebook collects data about you from websites and apps via a tracking tool called Pixel. Until now, Pixel has reported to Facebook what you do without your knowledge. The platform’s new feature lets you see who’s been passing on your data. The way Zuck put it: It’s a “new way to view and control your off-Facebook activity.”

In my case, it showed hundreds of companies, mostly media sites and travel and vacation sites. This was unsettling but not on the scale of what Washington Post tech columnist Geoffrey Fowler discovered. Polling his colleagues, Fowler found that sites had tattled to Facebook about their visits to a sperm measurement service, medical insurers, and a credit agency.

While Facebook deserves credit for finally disclosing such data, the company won’t let you do much about it. In that sense, the “clear history” button is basically a farce. Facebook is still gobbling up your data. All the button does is instruct Facebook not to blend that third-party data with its own collected data when it offers you up to advertisers. (The website Gizmodo was more blunt: Its account of the feature has the headline “Facebook’s ‘Clear History’ Tool Doesn’t Clear Shit.”)

What’s more, the “Clear History” button is buried deep in the settings menu. Those who want to manage their “Off-Facebook” settings must also enter their password and navigate a series of pop-ups of notifications. The page feels designed to create as much friction as possible while users try to exercise privacy choices.

On top of everything, Facebook is also flying in the face of California’s landmark new privacy law that allows consumers to tell companies to delete their data and stop selling it. The company has contended that it doesn’t “sell” data per se, and that its arrangements with third parties are subject to a special exemption. Some lawyers dispute Facebook’s interpretation, and it may require a court ruling to set out the company’s actual privacy obligations.

So Zuckerberg seems sincere about an approach that will “piss off a lot of people”—including his own customers. It’s a bold strategy. But at a time when regulators are circling and investors are getting antsy about Facebook’s future, it may not be the best one. 

Jeff John Roberts

Twitter: @jeffjohnroberts

Email: [email protected]

This edition of Data Sheet was curated by Aaron Pressman.

NEWSWORTHY

The truth will out. After all that debate about whether WeWork was a tech company or not, the company is now sending a signal of its own. The next CEO of the struggling real-estate startup (ahem) will be longtime real estate exec Sandeep Mathrani. He ran mall company GGP, which he sold to Brookfield Property Partners, where he then ran the firm's retail group.

Switching horses in midstream. Chipmaker Intel is ending efforts to build A.I.-friendly silicon with designs acquired in its $400 million purchase of Nervana Systems in 2016. Instead, Intel will focus on chips from Habana Labs, which it just bought for $2 billion.

Virtual electorate. West Virginia is preparing to allow online voting via a mobile phone app for people with disabilities. The law, expected to be signed by Gov. Jim Justice this week, would be the first in the country. Speaking of government dictates, the European Union voted last week to require a single standardized charging port on all mobile devices. That could force Apple to change the proprietary lightning port on iPhones.

Kings of the one-click. The most recent Coins2Day Analytics poll examined e-commerce habits over the holiday shopping season. Amazon led, with Walmart and Target trailing behind. Consumers picked Amazon for delivery speed, while Walmart was the pick for best product prices.

Rest in peace. Disgraced telecom executive Bernie Ebbers, the former CEO of WorldCom, died on Sunday at age 78. Ebbers built WorldCom from nothing into a $200 billion behemoth, only to be pushed out and later convicted of fraud when the company collapsed in one of the largest bankruptcies in history. Ebbers was released from prison in December for health reasons after serving half of his 25-year sentence.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

Self-driving vehicles of all sorts are moving off the drawing board and onto the roads. Texas is allowing Waymo to begin running autonomous semitrailer trucks on its interstates, with a human on board in case of emergency. Peter Holley has a deep dive into the Lone Star state's efforts for Texas Monthly. He spoke with John Esparza, CEO and president of the Texas Trucking Association.

“The Department of Public Safety will tell you distracted drivers are the biggest killer of drivers on our highways today and—once you deploy this technology that takes error out of human hands—you’ll start seeing some real change,” said Esparza, who served as a policy adviser to Governor Rick Perry and was later appointed to the Texas Tech University System Board of Regents by Perry. He also said that an experienced truck driver with a clean driving record is a “hot commodity.”

“I don’t see a time in the near future, or even when my grandkids are grown, that there won’t be a need for truck drivers,” he said.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

Privacy, bias and safety: On facial recognition, Berlin and London choose different paths By David Meyer

5G tablets have arrived. How fast can they change computing? By Don Reisinger

Why Super Bowl ads still matter in the streaming age By Ken Wheaton

How marketers are increasingly using A.I. To persuade you to buy By David Z. Morris

Should your company take design more seriously? By Nate Berg

Those controversial ‘Peloton wife’ ads may not have hurt sales after all, say analysts By Anne Sraders

BEFORE YOU GO

Plenty of tech companies advertised during the Super Bowl last night. Google had a moving spot about remembering lost loved ones. Amazon had Ellen DeGeneres being funny about the time before Alexa. And Facebook opted for a head-banging Twisted Sister classic to promote its Groups feature.

Aaron Pressman

On Twitter: @ampressman

Email: [email protected]