Facebook stores everything you’ve ever done on its service. Here’s how to find out what it knows.
Just like Google and Apple, Facebook knows almost everything we do online. Facebook never forgets.
And never was this realisation as stark as it is now, following the mess Facebook has found itself in with its Cambridge Analytica dealings. Cambridge Analytica hit the headlines mid-March after it transpired that the British analytics firm allegedly acquired data from millions of Facebook users, without consent, to help target certain voters in the 2016 Presidential election. Facebook is accused of enabling the company and the pairing is now under investigation.
This has led to a spike in searches for how to delete a Facebook account as well as people looking for ways to have greater control of their Facebook data and what the site knows about them. This is possible by downloading your Facebook history, and we’ve explained how to do that below.
Be warned, though, there really is a worrying amount of information. This isn’t just a Reader’s Digest version of your Facebook profile, this is everything you’ve ever done on the social network. It knows when you’ve logged in, where you’ve logged in, the ads you’ve clicked on, the people you’ve unfriended, the locations of the photos you’ve taken and even every event you’ve ever been invited to – whether you actually went or not.
Some people have even noticed Facebook has been tracking all the calls and texts made using their mobile, many without realising. However, the social network was quick to quash the privacy backlash over this feature. In a statement, the company said: “You may have seen some recent reports that Facebook has been logging people’s call and SMS (text) history without their permission. This is not the case. Call and text history logging is part of an opt-in feature for people using Messenger or Facebook Lite on Android. People have to expressly agree to use this feature. If, at any time, they no longer wish to use this feature they can turn it off.»
So, if you still want to see everything Facebook knows about you with just a couple of clicks and a bit of patience, here’s how:
