After the news broke last week that data firm Cambridge Analytica accessed information from 50 million Facebook users without their knowledge, I wanted to know more about what information Facebook has on me. By visiting the Settings page, I clicked an option to download a copy of my data at the bottom of the general account section. Related: How to stop Facebook from mostly sharing your data.
Facebook emailed me a link to download my data. The process took about 10 minutes. The downloading time depends on how much data you've generated. The data is segmented into groups: like ads, contact info, events, messages, timeline, and more.
I started with the ads tab and learned which advertisers possessed my contact information. One of my male colleagues had a few surprising advertisers collecting his data: Rod Stewart, Sally Beauty and Cyndi Lauper.
He said he's not a fan of any of those brands. Related: Facebook has gotten too big for Mark Zuckerberg. Facebook also preserved conversations I had with people I've tried to forget.
As the title suggests: Things got weird, fast. And if you're understandably hesitant about downloading your own data, or just considering it, here's what you can expect -- and what the results mean.
When you first download a copy of your data archive and unzip it the compressed file here 's a quick how-to , it'll look something like this:. Open the general "index. Here's what the "profile" section of mine looks like, with a few sections removed for the sake of -- this old thing -- privacy.
Granted, what was available on this page was largely information I voluntarily supplied to Facebook by way of putting it on my profile, like where I went to school or my birthday. But it was in the other sections and file folders where things started to get weird -- and where I started wondering what potential advertisers or others might be doing with it. The "Ads" section of my data index file largely consists of an exhaustive list of ad topics that would be of interest to me.
Some of them made sense, as they were brands whose Pages I already Liked. But some of the topics were downright irrelevant and, therefore, befuddling -- like "fishing bait" and "organic compound. But there was also a section for advertisers with my contact information, many of whom were brands and musical artists whose Pages I hadn't Liked. I had to wonder, why do the Smashing Pumpkins and Beck have my contact information?
I hadn't listened to either, really, since my first year of college when -- at risk of dating myself -- Facebook didn't exist yet. It raises questions about just how accessible this information is, and how widespread the availability of our data might be. While likely a bad actor, I'm inclined to believe that Cambridge Analytica isn't alone in the way it allegedly synthesized Facebook user data to get to the root of what sort of promoted content and messaging would resonate most with people.
It's also unclear how to selectively remove that data, if at all -- which could be a valuable next step for Facebook, says HubSpot Product Lead Daria Marmer. That became particularly salient when I discovered that my Facebook data includes a transcript of every Messenger interaction I've had, replete with any photo or video files I may have shared in those conversations.
Again, this might not be new. In an April earnings call , Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg noted that as part of the social network's ongoing efforts to personalize any content seen by a given user, it would take "a couple of different approaches towards more private content as well.
In the context of the full remarks, it would appear that Zuckerberg was referring to content promotion in these private conversations -- namely, those taking place on Messenger and WhatsApp also owned by Facebook. Those plans are increasingly coming to fruition as of late, by way of in-app ads on Messenger see below image and the proposed Messenger Broadcast feature. At the time, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg positioned these efforts as going strictly toward displaying Facebook content that users would be "genuinely happy to see.
But to this day, and among recent events, it remains unclear as to which data is, was, or would be used to help target the "private content" Zuckerberg alluded to. However, some believe that any user data authorization, including the kind that eventually led to the alleged misuse by Cambridge Analytica , would include Messenger data and files, too. This personal revelation comes among recent allegations that, on Android devices, Facebook may have been scraping data on calls made and text messages sent from users' mobile devices -- through the device itself, not the Messenger platform.
Here's what that logged activity looked like for one Android user who discovered this record in his own data file:. Source: Ars Technica. Facebook's response to this allegation is that users must explicitly opt into allowing Messenger to access contacts and, it seems, log call and text activity.
According to a statement published Sunday:. Current City: The city you added to the About section of your Timeline. Education: Any information you added to Education field in the About section of your Timeline. Emails: Email addresses added to your account even those you may have removed. We use this data to help others tag you in photos. Followers: A list of people who follow you. Friend Requests: Pending sent and received friend requests.
Friends: A list of your friends. Gender: The gender you added to the About section of your Timeline. Groups: A list of groups you belong to on Facebook. Hometown: The place you added to hometown in the About section of your Timeline.
ID: A copy of the ID you submitted to confirm your identity and to help improve our automated systems for detecting fake IDs and related abuse.
Logins: IP address, date and time associated with logins to your Facebook account. Logouts: IP address, date and time associated with logouts from your Facebook account.
Matched Contacts: Contact information that may be associated with your account. Name: The name on your Facebook account. Networks: Networks affiliations with schools or workplaces that you belong to on Facebook. Pages You Admin: A list of pages you admin. Pending Friend Requests: Pending sent and received friend requests.
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