How To Find, Download and Delete Your Facebook Data

What kind of data does Facebook have on you?

In the past year, the social networking giant has promised to give its users better control over their privacy and data.

These changes come in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica data breach scandal the occurred in March 2018, when Facebook allowed the data collecting firm to gather information from 50 million users via a third party app.

Needless to say, Facebook has been working on regaining its users’ trust.

One way they’ve done this is by giving users more control over their privacy via data settings and other controls. 

This means your average Facebook fan has probably come across the platform’s new privacy shortcut menus, an increased amount of layered protect (i.e. two-factor authentication) and have more control over the ad’s we view on the platform within the past year.

This also includes the ability to find, download and delete your Facebook data.

“I started Facebook, and at the end of the day I’m responsible for what happens on our platform,” Zuckerberg said, in a post on his Facebook. “I’m serious about doing what it takes to protect our community.”

While downloading all your data from Facebook may seem a bit scary, it’s a pretty straightforward process and isn’t nearly as intimidating as it sounds.

Here’s how to download all of your data from Facebook…

Go to Facebook.com/settings.

Click “Download a copy of your Facebook data.”

Click “Download Archive.”

Facebook will alert you via email when your archive is ready.

Click “Download Archive” again, and a zip file will download to your computer.

Browse through that archive by opening each file inside the folder.

Expect to find a detailed history of your Facebook interactions, images, video, messages, etc. within your folder, along with a collection of past Instagram posts and Stories.

Understandably, you might not want Facebook to have a record of everything you’ve posted on the platform since the dawn of your Facebook account. The social giant has acknowledge this and plans to make the deletion process easier for users that want to omit content from their accounts.

“Some people want to delete things they’ve shared in the past, while others are just curious about the information Facebook has. So we’re introducing a new feature called ‘Access Your Information,'” Facebook’s Vice President and Deputy General Council Ashlie Beringer said, in a recent video. “By using this tool you can delete anything from your timeline and profile that you no longer want on Facebook.”

You might be slightly horrified at the amount of information Facebook has on its users (especially after you download and review your “achieved” data). Take some comfort in knowing that the platform and Zuckerberg have vowed to turn things around and give stronger privacy control to its users.

Have you downloaded your Facebook Data? Let us know in the comments below.