Washington (AFP)

Facebook announced on Tuesday that its approximately two billion users around the world will now have access to, and can delete, data collected from websites and applications outside the social network.

Internet research, online shopping ... Each user of the world's leading social network will now be able to consult this information, collected by Facebook to target their advertisements, and a button must allow this data to be deleted.

This tool, dubbed "Off-Facebook Activity", offers "a new level of transparency and control" for the social network, said its CEO Mark Zuckerberg in a message posted on his blog.

"As of today, our Off-Facebook Activity tool is available to Facebook users around the world," he said.

Facebook has come under heavy fire after revelations in recent years about how it collects and uses data.

"We have been working on this for a while because we had to rebuild some of our systems to make this possible," he added.

Mark Zuckerberg pointed out that Facebook users will be invited to consult their data when they visit their accounts, as part of the "privacy check" put in place by the social network.

This tool will make it possible to lift a corner of veil on certain Facebook practices, in particular techniques intended to target its advertisements.

"Other companies send us activity information on their sites and we use it to show you relevant advertising. You can now see a summary of that information and delete it if you wish," said Mark Zuckerberg.

Facebook seeks to restore its image after a series of scandals on its management of personal data, especially after the Cambridge Analytica scandal, a British company which had used the personal data of tens of millions of Facebook users without their knowledge to influence it. from the 2016 presidential election, in favor of Donald Trump.

"One of our main goals for the next decade is to build stronger privacy protections for everyone," said Mark Zuckerberg.

"In the coming weeks we will encourage nearly two billion people around the world to review their privacy settings," he said.

© 2020 AFP