Audit fails to calm critics

Facebook on Tuesday launched a new tool that will allow users to prevent the powerful social media platform from tracking them across the web.

The company’s new “Off-Facebook Activity” tool will allow people to access a list of the companies sharing information about their online activity with Facebook and offer users the opportunity to opt out of that tracking.

While the tool is aimed at allowing users to prevent Facebook from tracking their activity across the web, it does not affect third-party companies’ ability to still collect data on those users.

“Off-Facebook Activity lets you see a summary of the apps and websites that send us information about your activity, and clear this information from your account if you want to,” Facebook officials said in a blog post.

Importantly, Facebook will still collect data from other websites, though it will be anonymous. If users say they do not want companies to share their data anymore, Facebook will disassociate that information from their user profile.

For now, the tool will only be available in Ireland, South Korea and Spain, and it will be rolled out to other locations in the coming months.