It doesn’t help that the company has confirmed that it can track you even if you delete your account. “When you visit a site or app that uses our services, we receive information even if you’re logged out or don’t have a Facebook account. This is because other apps and sites don’t know who is using Facebook,” said Facebook’s product management director, David Baser. That data includes IP addresses, browser and operating system information, the address of the website or app, cookies and device identifiers, and is used to enhance the company’s service and security. There’s a very simple way to get a copy of all the data Facebook holds on you, and armed with this you can then look into whether you’d rather it didn’t and take the appropriate action. Remember that it’s not just Facebook that holds your information: third-party app developers also know more than you probably realise.
Find out what Facebook knows about you
Log into Facebook in your browserTap the down arrow at the top right of the window and choose SettingsAt the bottom of the General Account Settings page is a link to ‘Download a copy of your Facebook data’ – click thisNow click the green ‘Start my Archive’ buttonEnter your Facebook password and click SubmitAgain click ‘Start my Archive’Facebook will gather your data and send an email to the address it holds for you once that file is ready to download. Watch your inbox, and note that this file will be available to download for only a few days
Also see: How to secure Facebook Marie is Editor in Chief of Tech Advisor and Macworld. A Journalism graduate from the London College of Printing, she’s worked in tech media for more than 17 years, managing our English language, French and Spanish consumer editorial teams and leading on content strategy through Foundry’s transition from print, to digital, to online - and beyond.
