How to see everything Facebook knows about you

To say that Facebook is a popular social media service is certainly to downplay all that it really is. Facebook is a global corporation that offers advertising and commercial products. The everyday user logs in to see their friends, family, and funny memes and rarely considers what information this company is collecting about them.

Facebook is no stranger to questionable privacy practices. In 2018, the company was subject to a scandal known as the Cambridge Analytica deals; The company was also involved in a massive data breach and even had to pay the FTC $5 billion for consumer privacy violations.

Once the news broke, there was a spike in searches for how to delete a Facebook account and people looked for ways to have more control over their Facebook data and what the site knows about them. Fortunately, the company made it possible for users to get more information about their information and we explain how to do it below. You can also find out if you or your friends were victims of the Cambridge Analytica scandal using this online tool.

But keep in mind that there is a really worrying amount of information out there. Some people have even noticed that Facebook has been tracking all calls and text messages made from their mobile, many without realizing it. If you want to take control of your privacy while you continue using the platform, we’ll teach you everything you need to know. in this article.

How intrusive is Facebook?

There is a common joke that Facebook is listening to your conversations outside the app. Many users have reported having a conversation and then Facebook presents an ad related to that conversation. The founder firmly denies this rumor, but Facebook’s tracking algorithms are so good that they almost seem true.

So what information does Facebook collect and how does it use it?

Activity outside of Facebook

Off-Facebook activity is how Facebook tracks your shopping and travel habits. According to Facebook, when you search for something online or even go to a physical store to make a purchase, that company shares your information with Facebook. Once Facebook receives this information, the company uses it to send more personalized ads to your News Feed.

Applications and web activity

According to the company’s privacy policy, Facebook will collect information about your online activity and also the online activity of your friends. This means that even if you deactivate or delete your account, the information Facebook collected from your friends will remain.

This permission is especially useful for you as a user because you can quickly log in to most websites and apps and even store your game progress in some cases.

Other information included in this category is the following:

• Your contacts: to help you find “people you may know”
• Networks and connections: who and how you interact with others
• Transactions and usage: How you use Facebook and its affiliated companies (WhatsApp, Instagram, etc.)

Device Information

This includes everything from your location to your IP address and even battery life. Once you’ve downloaded Facebook or logged into a web browser, Facebook will have access to where you are and what type of device you’re using.

To help better detect bots, Facebook can even track mouse movements while you use the platform.

Any information you provide

Facebook stores everything from posts to interests, events and profile information. If you have included your political or religious opinions on Facebook, the company tracks and stores that information.

How to see what data Facebook is tracking

There are many ways to see what information Facebook tracks and stores about you. Fortunately, the mobile app makes it really easy to see what is stored and, in some cases, how Facebook obtained the data. So, let’s start with the simplest method first.

Please note that all of these instructions will appear following the Three line menu icon>Settings route in the mobile application.

How to see your activity outside of Facebook

We’ll start by showing you which apps Facebook collects information about you from. Open Settings in the Facebook app and follow these steps:

1. Scroll down Settings to Activity outside of Facebook option under Your Facebook information qualification.
   
2. Tap on Manage your activity outside of Facebook.
   
3. A new page will appear where you can see each source of information. Tap one to get more information.
   
4. After tapping on one of the listed sources, you’ll see what tools Facebook used to collect the data, the number of interactions received, and how the company uses this information.
   

If you feel this is too invasive, you can delete all non-Facebook history from your account by clicking Delete history option shown in step 2 above. But please note that this may affect some of your login information and game progress depending on the app.

You can also prohibit the inpidual app from communicating your personal information by following these steps. Play the Deactivate future activity of… option to prevent an inpidual source from contacting Facebook about your activity outside of Facebook.

Access your Facebook information

Your ‘Facebook Information’ is a broad term for various data the company has about you. Some of them are pretty standard things, like your Facebook posts and your friends. Other elements in this section are a little more intriguing. We’ll see:

1. Go to Settings in your Facebook account. Then touch Access your information under the heading Your Facebook Information.
   
2. You will then see a page with quite a few categories. You can click on any of these to access links to information that is stored about you. For our example, we will touch Registered information.
   
3. Scroll through the list of options for more information.
   

Although it takes some time to review each category and each subcategory, Facebook really makes it easy to see what the business is collecting and how. But there are also other methods.

Download your Facebook information:

Another, longer-term option is to download all your Facebook information to a device of your choice. So if you still want to see everything Facebook knows about you with just a couple of clicks and a little patience, here’s how:

Click the down arrow on your Facebook account and go to Settings and Privacy, then Settings.

On the left side, click Your Facebook Information.

Click View next to Download your information.

On the next page, click Create File.

Click Available Copies and click Download again.

You will be asked to enter your password.

The file comes as a .zip, so make sure you have something capable of unzipping it; Both OS X and Windows 10 handle this without the need for additional software.

You can now browse through a set of information stores similar to web pages. For example, index.htm is an archived version of your Facebook profile, which includes past relationships, jobs, and educational institutions. You can see every photo you’ve ever uploaded along with all the EXIF ​​data Facebook has, meaning where and when it was taken and even where it was uploaded. They can even see everyone they’ve ever stopped being friends with; sorry, guys.

In fact, Facebook has tracked every event you’ve attended, videos uploaded, locations and devices you’ve logged in from, messages you’ve sent, images it collects for facial recognition, and even what advertising themes it thinks you’re targeting. you prefer. be served.

Download Facebook data from a mobile device

It may be easier to download your Facebook data to a mobile device. To do this, follow these steps:

Open the Facebook app and tap the three horizontal lines to access Settings. (The three lines may be in the upper left or right corner depending on your operating system.)

Tap on ‘Download your Facebook information‘located below the Your Facebook information section.

Uncheck any information you do not want to download and select the date and file type. Tap ‘Create a file‘ when you’re ready to download.

How to control what Facebook knows about you

If you’re concerned about the information Facebook has about you, you can close your account completely (but be careful, your photos, friends, and even logins will be lost). Facebook claims that if a user closes their account, all information collected from that account is deleted.

The exception to this is that Facebook will still have some of your information, thanks to your friends and connections.

Another way to control which Facebook collects your information is to monitor your activity on the site. As noted above, Facebook will track everything you post or include on your profile, groups you join, or even events you attend.

You can control how advertisers use your data by visiting your account settings and selecting ‘Ad Settings.’ You can toggle the available options from ‘Allow‘ to ‘Not allowed.’

This will likely mean you’ll receive random ads that don’t apply to you, but if you’re concerned about privacy, doing these things is a good start to regaining control of your personal information.

Frequent questions

Protecting your privacy is of utmost importance. In case we didn’t cover everything you wanted to know about Facebook activities, we have the answers to more questions.

What does Facebook do with the data it tracks?

As you can see, Facebook tracks a lot of data and personal information. Most of this information is used for marketing purposes. Facebook collects information about what you buy, what your friends buy, what groups you join (to see your interests), and then shows you ads that the company thinks you might like.

Facebook also uses the information it collects to add features and functions to the platform that could further improve the user experience. Every time Facebook makes a new update and the interface changes, this is a result of data collected on how users interact with the app or website.

Facebook also collects data about the things you or your friends post. For example, the company uses facial recognition to better track your photos and videos. This is one of the reasons why you can see tagging suggestions when you upload a photo. Like many other Facebook features, you can disable it by going to the page Settings>Face Recognition selections and tapping the option to turn this off.

Is there a list of everything Facebook collects about its users?

Yes. Facebook is transparent about the information the company collects and stores about its users. You can visit the Facebook privacy policy by clicking this linkor you can access it by tapping Data policy at the bottom of the Settings page in the mobile app.