Facebook: Download everything the social media network has on you

A man waits for an elevator in front of a logo at Facebooks headquarters in London, Britain, December 4, 2017. REUTERS/Toby Melville

IF you are like most people, there is no doubt that you have been spending a lot of time on Facebook, probably longer than you can think.

And with the outrage sparked by data mining company Cambridge Analytica which used FB users’ personal info for political reasons, you may be worried about what the social media network has on you.

While most of the data is available online on your FB page itself and your Activity Log, there’s a lot more behind the scenes.

For instance, FB doesn’t show the ads you have clicked on (and more importantly the advertisers that have your contact); and IP addresses that are logged when you log into or out of Facebook.

But now you can get everything you have ever done on the social network by going to your FB page and then clicking on the downward arrow at the top right corner and choosing Settings (https://www.facebook.com/settings). Now look at the bottom of the page and you’ll see “Download a copy of your Facebook data” – click on this link. Note: This is best done on a desktop or laptop.

FB will take a few minutes to compile all your information and you’ll understand why when you get the data.

You’ll see a detailed history of chats, phone numbers (wonder how it managed to get those because we don’t remember sharing ours) and much more – it’s like having your very own FB page, but offline.

This data is particularly handy if you plan to follow in the footsteps of Tesla CEO Elon Musk who deleted the company’s FB page, or other prominent personalities that have started removing their FB accounts, especially with the #DeleteFacebook movement gaining steam.

However, while it may be fun to download the data, you need to take extra care to ensure that no one else gets a hold of it because it contains a lot of information about you.