How To

How to find out what Facebook knows about you

NACHO REQUENA MOLINA

 - January 23, 2019

In the wake of Facebook’s turbulent 2018, people have started to worry about their personal info more than ever. Moreover, what information does Facebook have bout you that could suddenly be compromised? Today at Softonic, we’ll show you how to learn what Facebook knows about you, thanks to the data you’ve given them consciously … and involuntarily.

FacebookACCESS FACEBOOK

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Stop for a second and think about it: Every time you click “Like” on a page, Facebook records this action to then offer you targeted content. But who can even remember how many times they’ve clicked “Like” since first joining? The first step is to find your history.

To do this, click the drop-down in the upper right corner and click  Settings and then Ads, located on the left side of the page:

You can view and set your ad preferences by clicking here.

The first section shows “Your interests,” which is divided into “News and entertainment,” “Business and industry,” “Sports and outdoors,” “People,” “Travel, places and events,” and “More” (which breaks down into ten additional subcategories).

See the interests Facebook has pegged you to have, along with any advertiser you’ve interacted with.

In the next section, you can see “Advertisers you’ve interacted with,” while the following is “Your information,” i.e. data you’ve provided to help advertisers target you.

It’s incredible all the info that you’re finding out, right? Well, hold on, there’s more:

How to download your personal file

If you think what we’ve mentioned so far is a lot, there’s an extra surprise: You can download a file with all the information about you that Facebook has collected since the day you first created an account. And when we say everything, we mean it: Comments, photos, publications, videos, likes and reactions, comments posted on any profile, Facebook Messenger messages, events, profile info, groups that you’ve interacted with, etc. In other words, Facebook saves absolutely everything you do.

To access it,  return to Settings and select Your Facebook information.

Want to view everything Facebook knows about you?

Here you can perform a number of functions, such as accessing your information, viewing your activity log, or even deleting your account. To access all the dirt Facebook has on you, click ‘view’ where it says ‘Download Your Information.’ It will take you to this screen:

Click Create File to download select information Facebook has on you.

Here you can filter exactly what data you’re trying to recover from Facebook. It can be only posts, only comments, friends you’ve made, and even your Marketplace activity. Scroll further down and you get to the really juicy stuff:

Here you can toggle viewing and managing of the ads Facebook deems relevant to you.

Here you can access data pertaining to your search history on Facebook, calls and messages you’ve received, and most notably ads that Facebook deems relevant to you. Click ‘Create File‘ at the top of the page and you’ll see everything Facebook knows about you. If you’re trying to target a certain time frame you can also adjust that up top:

Just want a reading of what Facebook gathered on you in the past week? Set it here.

After a few minutes you’ll receive an email from Facebook with all the info organized by day, month, and year.

And once you look through it, you may be convinced to chuck your computer and your phone out the window and flee into the hills to become a tech-phobic hermit. Or maybe just be a little more careful with what you share with Zuckerberg & Co.