Facebook has mountains of data on you and the recent scandal has made people more aware of the fact. Now everyone is interested in seeing exactly how much data the social network has collected on them. It is impossible to find out how much data has been trickled to advertising companies through your online dealing but Facebook gives the users the option to see how much data has been collected on them so far.
People have only recently started to realize that data collection is what keeps Facebook running. You can download your archived user data on from the social website and it reveals your personal call records, text messages as well as the location each time you log into the site.
Here is how you can download the data. In the right-hand corner, there is an arrow that shows a drop-down menu. You can go to setting and click the download a copy of your Facebook data at the bottom of the screen. This takes you to a new page where you can click Start My Archive to see what you have shared on the site and the personal data that has been collected.
Facebook asks for email and password confirmation so it can notify you when the data is ready to be downloaded. The time taken varies on how much you have shared and how long you have been a user. It can take up to 10 minutes if you have been on the social website for a decade.
The information is broken down into sections like contact info, text messages, Facebook messages, advertisers and more. The results are really shocking to see and give an idea of the lengths the social website goes to collect your personal data.
Facebook addressed the concerns in a blog post “You may have seen some recent reports that Facebook has been logging people’s call and SMS (text) history without their permission,” the company wrote. “This is not the case,” they added.
The company explains that people have to opt-in for the data to be collected but it doesn’t say what the data will be used for once they do opt for it. The social giants still say that they do not sell that data to anyone and the users can choose to opt out of it anytime they want.
It really is a crazy thought and now that people are becoming more aware of it, they will tend to be more careful as they might not have the privacy that they feel.