Facebook stores almost every single action users have had with the social network since they’ve joined it.
Everything from the adverts you’ve clicked on, the events you’ve been invited to and the friends you have deleted is stored by Mark Zuckerberg’s firm.
The data is, in essence, the history of your time with Facebook.
The social networking giant are transparent about what data is stored on users, with a post online detailing everything that’s captured.
But the data that Facebook stores on users has been brought into the limelight by the allegations surrounding Cambridge Analytica.
A whistleblower claims Cambridge Analytica used personal data, taken without authorisation in 2014, to profile individual US voters and target them with political advertisements.
Cambridge Analytica allegedly obtained data gathered through an app called thisisyourdigitallife.
Hundreds of thousands of users were paid to take a personality test and agreed to academic use of the data.
But the app also allegedly collected their Facebook friends’ data, creating an unprecedented cache of private information.
UK Digital and Culture Secretary Matt Hancock told the Commons the allegations were “very worrying”.
A Facebook help page details everything the social networking giant stores on users – and how they can access this information.
The ‘Accessing Your Facebook Data’ page shows that data on addresses, credit cards and chat histories can all be stored.
In the post Facebook added: “Remember, most of your Facebook data is available to you simply by logging into your account (ex: all of your messages and chats are available in your inbox.)
“Also note that the categories of data that we receive, collect, and save may change over time. When this happens, this list will be updated.”
If you want to download all the data Facebook has stored on you, here’s how to access that information:
• Go to Facebook.com/settings
• Then tap “Download a copy of your Facebook data”
• Next, select “Download Archive”
• The next step may take a few minutes, but once your Facebook archive is ready you will be alerted
• When it is ready, click “Download Archive” again and then a zip file will downloaded to your computer
• You can then browse through that archive by opening each file inside the folder
The news comes as it was revealed today that the US Federal Trade Commission will investigate Facebook over the Cambridge Analytica data allegations.
Tom Pahl, acting director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, said he took “very seriously” allegations surrounding Facebook user data.
While Rob Sherman, deputy chief privacy officer for Facebook, said his firm would “appreciate the opportunity to answer questions the FTC may have”.
