It is no secret, Facebook knows almost everything we do online, and even worse is the fact that Facebook never forgets (as does almost the entire web world).
The Cambridge Analytica scandal and CEO Mark Zuckerberg's subsequent apology drew everyone's attention to a little-known feature until a year ago and that is the ability to download everything this social media network knows about us.
In fact, we know that Facebook stores virtually every single interaction you've had since you signed up, including every time you've logged in, your friends, your city, events to which you've been invited, every time you've sent or received a message, ads you've clicked on, a list of people you follow, every single status update, and much more.
So here is a guide on how to download your personal archive of information and find out everything the social knows about you. This might be useful to you, especially if you are planning, as is happening to many lately, to close Facebook and take some of those memories with you.
It is surprising to know how much data is enclosed behind each individual user.
If you are curious about your history, you will only need a couple of clicks and some patience, below we explain how.
How to download your Facebook archive
As we just mentioned, it is possible to download one's historical archive from Facebook.
Here's how:
- Go to facebook.com/settings
- Tap the third section you find on the left side labeled "your Facebook information"
- Tap view from the "download your information" area.
- Here you can decide to narrow the selection to one time frame or to your entire history
- In the part below you can include or exclude parts of your interest (posts, photos and videos, likes and reactions, friends, ...)
- Decide the format (html or Json) and the quality of the media content (high, medium or low)
- It may take a few minutes
- When the cloud writes that the file is ready, click "download archive" again and the zipper file will be downloaded to your computer
- Browse the archive by opening each file within the folder
Think that what you will find is a whole story of your life on Facebook.
You can use it as a copy of your profile to keep if you plan to leave the social network or you can also use it just as a reminder of how much Facebook knows about you.
A couple of years ago, this data probably would not have been useful to many Facebook users. After all, friend lists and chat logs have been created over the years by ourselves.
But in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, and amid the #DeleteFacebook movement, seeing this data may be enough to make at least some of Facebook's two billion members think twice before continuing to use it.