I read this article by Lulu Chang about a New York Times reporter downloading and viewing his Facebook data - and was amazed at some of the findings he mentioned in the article. It's very alarming because for some reason Facebook had all his contacts and phone numbers in the data, and several Advertisers with his contact information.
So I decided to download my own data to see what information they're storing on me! (instructions on how to do this is in another blog entry of mine called How to Delete Facebook .
Well, here's what they:
Profile information: this includes your registration date, has your phone number, email, birthday, gender, relationship status and previous relationships! Family, education and a big list of Other, which I'm not sure where or how this data is obtained but it looks like if I LIKED something someone posted for a certain location it records that info under Other.
Ads: probably the most disturbing section is seeing Advertisers who have uploaded a contact list with your information! Literally hundreds are listed such as Pope Francis - A Man of His Word? Bankex? Better Brella? I have no idea what these even are! Very scary!
Installed Apps: Not sure why they have a list of these either, I'm not sure if these are owned/controlled by Facebook but they have a list of apps, and some I've never heard of either, like Chrono Track Live?
Contacts: And yes they have a list of all my contacts in my phone with phone numbers and email addresses! I'm not sure how that happens and that's very scary as well!
Events: So they have a list of all the Events you've created, all the Events you've said you're going to, all the events you declined and all the Events you never replied to.
Friends: This lists all your current Friends on Facebook and when you became friends. It also lists all the Friend requests you've sent, all the requests you've declined and all the removed friends (can't tell if it's only the ones I've removed or the ones where they've removed me, it looks like both!) and the date removed.
Messages: So this lists the Friends and the text of the conversations you've had but only the ones that haven't been deleted. (includes pictures too)
Photos: all your photos are in there
Security: This section includes account status changes, active session dates/times, account activity (lots of data on this), recognized machines you've used, login and logout dates/times, some Login Protection Data info that I'm not sure is about, and IP Addresses of your machines.
Timeline: Your entire timeline listed.
Videos: And finally all the videos you have in your account.
What's in your Facebook?
Well, here's what they:
Profile information: this includes your registration date, has your phone number, email, birthday, gender, relationship status and previous relationships! Family, education and a big list of Other, which I'm not sure where or how this data is obtained but it looks like if I LIKED something someone posted for a certain location it records that info under Other.
Ads: probably the most disturbing section is seeing Advertisers who have uploaded a contact list with your information! Literally hundreds are listed such as Pope Francis - A Man of His Word? Bankex? Better Brella? I have no idea what these even are! Very scary!
Installed Apps: Not sure why they have a list of these either, I'm not sure if these are owned/controlled by Facebook but they have a list of apps, and some I've never heard of either, like Chrono Track Live?
Contacts: And yes they have a list of all my contacts in my phone with phone numbers and email addresses! I'm not sure how that happens and that's very scary as well!
Events: So they have a list of all the Events you've created, all the Events you've said you're going to, all the events you declined and all the Events you never replied to.
Friends: This lists all your current Friends on Facebook and when you became friends. It also lists all the Friend requests you've sent, all the requests you've declined and all the removed friends (can't tell if it's only the ones I've removed or the ones where they've removed me, it looks like both!) and the date removed.
Messages: So this lists the Friends and the text of the conversations you've had but only the ones that haven't been deleted. (includes pictures too)
Photos: all your photos are in there
Security: This section includes account status changes, active session dates/times, account activity (lots of data on this), recognized machines you've used, login and logout dates/times, some Login Protection Data info that I'm not sure is about, and IP Addresses of your machines.
Timeline: Your entire timeline listed.
Videos: And finally all the videos you have in your account.
What's in your Facebook?
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