Facebook will soon add a feature that will let Messenger app users delete messages, according to Fortune.
The company’s decision to add a delete function came after a TechCrunch report that found Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s old messages from as far back as 2010 had been deleted.
The report said Facebook installed a time-lapse function, which, like Snapchat, would allow executives to automatically delete their messages in their inbox if they chose to do so.
The company developed the feature after Sony was hacked in 2014, which exposed private information from within the company.
“After Sony Pictures’ emails were hacked in 2014 we made a number of changes to protect our executives’ communications. These included limiting the retention period for Mark’s messages in Messenger. We did so in full compliance with our legal obligations to preserve messages,” Facebook said in a statement to TechCrunch.
Now the company plans to implement the feature into your own app.
“We will now be making a broader delete message feature available. This may take some time,” a Facebook spokeswoman told Fortune. “Until this feature is ready, we will no longer be deleting any executives’ messages. We should have done this sooner — and we’re sorry that we did not.”
According to CNN, Facebook began rolling out another tool on Monday to allow users to see if their data has been hacked. The tool will continue to be rolled out over time, meaning some users will get it ahead of others.
So here’s how it works, according to Wired: If you or a friend used the “This is your Digital Life” quiz, a message will appear telling you that the quiz was banned. Then, you will be sent a link where you can find all areas of your data that were affected.
“We have banned the website ‘This Is Your Digital Life,’ which one of your friends used Facebook to log into,” the message will read. “You can learn more about what happened and how you can remove other apps and websites any time if you no longer want them to have access to your Facebook information.”
However, those who weren’t affected will see a link that will explain “which apps are connected to their Facebook accounts and what data those third parties can see. The link also directs users to a tool that allows them to disconnect apps from accounts,” CNN reported.
Zuckerberg said last month that the social network would add this tool to “show everyone a tool at the top of your News Feed with the apps you’ve used and an easy way to revoke those apps’ permissions to your data.”
The update comes as Facebook faces its largest scandal to date. Zuckerberg is set to testify before Congress Tuesday, where he’s expected to admit that Facebook made a mistake with the recent data breach in which Cambridge Analytica received data for more than 87 million users, according to Mashable.
The Energy and Commerce Committee published Zuckerberg’s prepared remarks, in which he admits that Facebook didn’t do enough to solve the data breach issues.
“Facebook is an idealistic and optimistic company. For most of our existence, we focused on all the good that connecting people can bring,” Zuckerberg says in the written testimony. “But it’s clear now that we didn’t do enough to prevent these tools from being used for harm as well.”
