What information does Facebook have about you? A staggering amount if you’ve been using the service for a while. Fortunately, the social network makes it easy (if not straightforward) to find out exactly what information it has about your activities, and you can even download your Facebook data. Here’s how.
Before you start, make sure you are logged into your Facebook account in your web browser. If you are not, this will not work.
Once that’s done, go to the “Your Facebook Information” section of the Facebook account management options. You can do it the easy way by simply following this link, or the more annoying way by clicking and selecting the downward pointing arrow in the top right corner of the page Settings and privacy> Settings> Your Facebook information. The company̵
On that page you will see all your available options. If you’re just interested in seeing what current data Facebook has on you, the raw activity log might be worth checking out, but the real meat can be found on the ‘Access your data’ landing page. From there you can see everything Facebook has saved for the life of your account. It covers a huge range of different data types. Just take a look at the screenshot of the available data sections below!
Brad Chacos / IDGMost of these categories also have different subcategories. (Click to enlarge.)
Yes, Facebook keeps track of every Post and Comment you made, every Comment and Like you cast, everyone you poked or paid on the platform, every friend you made, your hometown and a lot more.
The “Information About You” section at the bottom contains particularly remarkable things. There you can find your search history, login location history, any voice recordings you’ve made, and the ad profile Facebook created for you, including any advertisers who’ve uploaded a contact list with your data.
How to download your Facebook data
It is much. If you want a copy of Facebook’s data, you can also download your data.
Brad Chacos / IDGFacebook offers detailed options for the type of data you want, the format and quality of your download, and the date range for the data you want. By default, the Download Your Information page is configured to give you a huge file of everything you’ve ever done on the social network.
It takes a while for Facebook to create the archive. The time will likely increase depending on your activity level and how long your account has been active. My 10-year-old account took about 15 minutes to compile and ended up being a large 1.23 GB file, although I rarely upload photos to the service.
Brad Chacos / IDGWhen it’s ready to use, Facebook will send you a notification so you can download it to the device of your choice. Be warned, however, that some information may be difficult to parse in the downloaded format.
If you’re a little shocked by the size of Facebook’s records, the social giant also offers the ability to manage your data, with the linked Help hub directing you to specific settings pages depending on what you’re trying to do. Finally, if you want to go for the nuclear option, you can also deactivate or delete your Facebook account.
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