How to see EVERYTHING Facebook knows about you – and it’s actually terrifying
IF you’ve ever wondered what Facebook knows about you you’ll be pleased to hear that it’s pretty easy to find out.
The social network allows you to download the data and information that it has stored about you and this can be done in a few simple steps.
You first need to login to Facebook on a web browser.
Go to your profile and click the downward arrow in the top right hand corner.
Then click “Settings & Privacy”, “Settings” and then “Your Facebook Information”.
Here you’ll be able to take a look at a raw “Activity Log” to see what you’ve been up to on Facebook.
The most useful section though will be “Access Your Information”.
Click this and you’ll be able to see all different types of data that Facebook has saved about you since you opened your account.
This includes payment history, messages, posts and even items you had moved to trash.
You’ll be able to see every friend you’ve ever added and even who you sent a ‘poke’ to years ago.
Search history, login location data and even voice recordings can be found in this section.
If you want a personal copy of what Facebook has been storing on you then you can download it.
You should see an option that says ‘download your information’ in the small print above all the catergories.
Select this and then choose what kind of file you’d like to download the information as.
It may take a while to download the file if your account is quite old.
Facebook states: “You can download a copy of your Facebook information at any time.
“You can download a complete copy, or you can select only the types of information and date ranges that you want.
“You can choose to receive your information in an HTML format that is easy to view, or a JSON format, which could allow another service to import it more easily.
“Downloading your information is a password-protected process that only you will have access to.
“Once your copy has been created, it will be available for download for a few days.
“If you’d like to view your information without downloading it, you can Access your information at any time.”
Facebook's biggest cyber-security mistakes
Here's some of the major times Facebook let us down...
- In 2007, Facebook’s first targetted advertising product, Beacon, caused outrage because there was initally no opt-in option about the kinds of information users wanted to share
- In 2009, a Federal Trade Commission investigation was triggered because Facebook users complained that the new privacy tools were too confusing and pushed users to make more of their personal information public
- In 2010, it was revealed that advertisers were using a privacy loophole to retrieve revealing personal information about Facebook users and the company had to change its software
- In 2011, the FTC charged Facebook with lying to customers about how their information could be kept private but making it public anyway
- 2018 saw Facebook’s biggest privacy scandal to date with reports that Cambridge Analytica misused user data and Facebook had to admit that it had failed to protect its users
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