How to download ALL your Facebook data – we reveal how much info the site holds on you
FACEBOOK stores staggering amounts of data on the people who use its platform – after all, we upload 2.5 billion pieces of content every single day.
But how much data does the social media giant really hold on us? More than you'd probably like.
The first problem is that Facebook mines data in so many different ways – that's how they've amassed over 300 petabytes (or one thousand million million bytes) of data for more than two billion people around the world.
There's all the data on your profile, for a start – that includes your name, age, marital status, where you went to work, and so on.
Then there's the stuff you do on Facebook, like liking posts, following pages, sharing photos and so on.
But tracker cookies (which most websites use) can even follow you around the internet, so Facebook can also get an idea of the types of websites you like to visit – to serve you more relevant advertisements.
Facebook lets you manage your ad settings here, if you'd rather they didn't track you across the internet:
But that doesn't tell you how much data Facebook has on you.
The best way to find out is to download a copy of your Facebook archive. This includes everything Facebook knows about you, and is a great way to store a back-up of your Facebook data if you ever delete your account.
To download your archive, follow this link:
Be warned that it's not always pleasant to find out how much of your data is being tracked.
Back in 2011, Austrian student and privacy advocate Max Schrems deleted his profile and asked Facebook for a copy of the data they had stored on him.
Soon after, Schrems received a 1,200 page PDF file from Facebook, detailing all of his data retained on company servers.
“I got a copy of some of my data on their servers. Three hundred of the 1,200 pages were data I previously deleted from Facebook. They still kept it.”
What info does Facebook hold on you?
- All the data on your profile - name, age, marital status, where you went to work, and so on.
- Your activity on the site - which posts you like, pages followed, photos shared.
- Its tracker cookies (which most websites use) can even follow you around the internet, so Facebook can also get an idea of the types of websites you like to visit – to serve you more relevant advertisements.
In January 2018, the social network published a post detailing its "privacy principles".
The company has never previously shared these privacy guidelines, but they're now available to view publicly online.
Erin Egan, Chief Privacy Officer at Facebook, says that the principles "guide our work", and that the company wants to give you "more control of your privacy".
"We recognise that people use Facebook to connect, but not everyone wants to share everything with everyone – including with us," the newly revealed guidelines explain.
"It's important that you have choices when it comes to how your data is used."
"We're constantly working to develop new controls and design them in ways that explain things to people clearly," Facebook writes.
Those new controls include a new privacy centre that will eventually contain all your core privacy settings in a single place.
"We're designing this based on feedback from people, policy-makers and privacy experts around the world."
Mark Zuckerberg's giant social network will also be giving Facebook users in EU countries a "newsfeed reminder" to take the company's privacy check-up.
It's part of Facebook's early preparations for the upcoming General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), a huge online privacy directive masterminded by the EU that affects people across the continent – and Brits too.
Related: How to delete Facebook
"As we prepare for GDPR, we have assembled the largest team in company history to make sure we continue to protect people's information," Facebook explains.
The social network is increasingly under pressure to improve privacy, because latest estimates suggest it handles the personal data of more than two billion people every month.
"Privacy is becoming a key issue for consumers using the Facebook platform," expert analyst Daniel Ives told The Sun.
"We believe it's a smart move for Facebook to publish its privacy guidelines as the company is getting more heat from regulators around the world, and they need to place nice in the sandbox," he added.
However, the GBH Insights analyst admitted that "most users will brush this off as noise".
We also spoke to GfK's Imran Choudhary, who agreed that most Facebook users don't pay attention to their online privacy.
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"Most consumers don't fully understand what kind of data social networks like Facebook have access to," he told The Sun.
"The overall understanding is still very low, and it's unlikely that these privacy concerns will drive the average consumer to stop using social media."
He added that consumers may make "better and more informed decisions" going forward, but this means social media giants like Facebook and Twitter becoming "more transparent first".
Did you realise how much information Facebook holds on you? And does it ever worry you? Let us know in the comments.
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