Back in May, Facebook announced it would release a so-called Clear History feature, which are a set of controls that give users more ample control over their privacy. At the time, Facebook said it will arrive in a matter of months. It's been more than half a year, and that feature is still nowhere to be found.
Now, the company confirms Clear History is going to take a longer time in the development stage. David Baser, head of Facebook's newly created privacy product team, says it's going to be available in early 2019 — but only for "testing."
"It's taking longer than we initially had thought," Baser admits to Recode. "We did underestimate how long [this] would take," he added, and that Facebook will "deliver the product for testing by spring of 2019."
Facebook And Privacy
Product delays aren't uncommon in the tech industry, of course. In fact, a lot of projects even get canceled altogether while still in the pipeline. In that regard, a delay doesn't seem that severe.
Facebook, however, has been harshly criticized for its stance on privacy, even more so its seemingly lackluster performance when it comes to protecting users' data. The recent Cambridge Analytica scandal comes to mind. The trouble with Russian agents meddling with the U.S. election through fake news, too.
So while product delays aren't a big deal, for Facebook, Clear History not launching on schedule is. For one, it signals that it might not be as serious about data privacy as it's letting on, and that's a huge no-no for a company already rife with accusations of invading on users' privacy.
Why Facebook's Clear History Feature Is Being Delayed
Baser explains that the delay is caused by a couple of technical challenges. Both are related to how Facebook stores user data on its servers.
Firstly, Facebook data is not always stored in the same way it's collected. When Facebook collects browsing data, Baser explains, that data set involves multiple parts, including personal identifying information, the website visited, and the timestamp for the collected data.
Sometimes, that data is stored in separate parts of Facebook's system. Consolidating them all to be cleared has been a challenge, according to Baser.
Secondly, Facebook currently stores browsing data by date and time instead of which user that data belongs to. That means it's hard to see all the browsing data linked to a single user. To remedy this, Facebook had to create a system where browsing data was categorized at the user level.
Simply put, clearing the data isn't the hard part. Finding it — all of it — is proving difficult.
But Facebook faces a bigger challenge ahead. It needs to explain to users that Clear History isn't the same as deleting history. That's right — the data doesn't actually get erased, just disassociated from the user once linked to it. The data is simply "de-identified," says Baser, meaning that while it's not tied to the user anymore, Facebook still has it on their servers.
Will that give rise to a potential scandal? Time will tell. Make sure to check back with Tech Times as we learn more about Clear History.
