Your Information & Facebook

Facebook – the world’s most popular social network – has in excess of 2 billion members around the world. It obtains revenue from advertising: if you ever wonder how products that you’ve shown an interest in pop up in the advertisements and posts on your page, it’s a combination of different technologies used to target you for this advertising. There has been widespread concern about how Facebook uses and shares your data, and in fact what data it holds about you. You can request a complete file of the data held. This page lists the categories of data, and explains simply how you can find out what information is held about you, either on your computer or via the Facebook app.

Your information

Posts: Posts you’ve shared on Facebook, posts that are hidden from your timeline and polls you have created

Photos: Photos you’ve uploaded and shared

Videos: Videos you’ve uploaded and shared

Comments: Comments you’ve posted on your own posts, on other people’s posts or in groups that you belong to

Likes and reactions: Posts, comments and Pages that you’ve liked or reacted to

Friends: The people you are connected to on Facebook

Following and followers: People, organisations or business that you choose to see content from, and people who follow you

Messages: Messages you’ve exchanged with other people on Messenger

Groups: Groups you belong to, groups you manage, and your posts and comments within the groups that you belong to

Events: Your responses to events and a list of the events that you’ve created

Profile information: Your contact information, information that you’ve written in your ‘About you’ section in your profile and your life events

Pages: Pages you are the admin of

Marketplace: Your activity on Marketplace

Payment history: A history of payments that you’ve made through Facebook

Saved items: A list of the posts that you’ve saved

Your places: A list of places you’ve created

Apps: Apps you’ve installed and apps you admin

Other activity: Activity associated with your account, such as pokes given and received

Ads: Ads topics that are most relevant to you, advertisers who have collected information directly from you and information that you’ve submitted to advertisers

Search history: A history of your searches on Facebook

Location history: A history of precise locations received through location services on your device

Calls and messages: Logs of your calls and messages that you’ve chosen to share in your device settings

About you: Information associated with your Facebook account

Security and login information: A history of your logins, logouts, periods of time that you’ve been active on Facebook and the devices that you use to access Facebook.

Network information: Information about the networks you use

 

HOW TO DOWNLOAD THE INFORMATION HELD ABOUT YOU

On your computer

1. On your ‘main’ page (timeline, wall?), find the downward-pointing arrow on the right-hand side of the dark blue band at the top.

2. Click on the arrow and select ‘Settings’ from the drop-down menu. This will open the ‘General Account Settings’ page.

3. In the left-hand column, click on ‘Your Facebook information’. This will open the ‘Your Facebook information’ page.

4. Click ‘Download your information’. This will open the ‘Download your information’ page.

5. The ‘New file’ tab will be selected by default if you have not downloaded the information previously. Carefully select the categories of information you want to download, and the date range you would like the information to cover. Note that if you click on a historic date on the ‘from’ calendar, you need to check the year on the ‘do’ calendar so that it does not default to the same year as the ‘from’ calendar.

6. We recommend you keep the default ‘HTML’ format and ‘High’ Media quality. Click the blue ‘Create File’ button.

7. You will receive a Facebook email acknowledging the request, then another to let you know that your information file is available.

8. Clicking on a link in the second email will take you back to the ‘Download your information’ page. Clicking on the ‘Download’ button will result in a pop-up requesting your password. Enter your password and ‘OK’ will download your information in a .zip file.

On your Facebook app

1. Touch the menu (three lines icon) at the bottom of your screen, then scroll down to ‘Settings & Privacy’

2. Select ‘Settings’.

3. Scroll down to ‘Your Facebook information’ and select ‘Download your information’.

4. The ‘New file’ tab will be selected by default if you have not downloaded the information previously. Carefully select the categories of information you want to download, and the date range you would like the information to cover. We recommend you keep the default ‘HTML’ format and ‘High’ Media quality. Click the blue ‘Create File’ button.

5. You will receive a Facebook email acknowledging the request, then another to let you know that your information file is available.

6. Clicking on a link in the second email will take you back to the ‘Download your information’ page. Clicking on the ‘Download’ button will result in a pop-up requesting your password. Enter your password and ‘OK’ will download your information in a .zip file.

 

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