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32 Types of User Data Facebook Collects; This is How You Can See Yours

Recently Facebook raised data privacy concerns with WhatsApp privacy policy changes and users were worried about data sharing with Facebook. However, WhatsApp later clarified its privacy policy and answered some questions which explained not all your WhatsApp data would be shared with Facebook, but Facebook already knows a lot about you and some data it has on you that you might not even know about. I’ll tell you in this article how you can see and download data Facebook collects from you and also what types of data Facebook has on you!

Also, read | You Can Download Your WhatsApp Data Collected By the App; Here’s How

Data Facebook Collects

View Your Information

1] Log in to your Facebook on a browser. Click the arrow at the top right, and click “Settings & Privacy” from the drop-down.

2] Next, click “Settings” and on the settings page click “Your Facebook Information.”


3] You’ll see a few different options. Look for “Access your information” and click “View” next to it.

4] Your Facebook data will show up divided into several categories. Click on any of these links will let you view your data.

You can click on “Expand all” to view all the data about you and click on any category and view your data that Facebook collects.

Download Your Information

Once you view all of your Facebook data, you can download a copy of it as well.

1] Again, go to Settings & Privacy and then Settings and click Your Facebook Information.

2] Look for “Download Your Information” and click “View” next to it. You’ll see all the categories just like above.

3] Check the box next to the category which you want to download.

3] By default, it will download all the data starting from when you signed up. You can also adjust the timeline by clicking “All of My Data” and using the calendar.

5] Next, choose the format in which you want to download your data- HTML or JSON.

6] Lastly, you can choose the “Media Quality” from Low, Medium, or High.

7] After all these selections, you can click on “Create File” to start the download.

8] Once Facebook notifies you when your information is ready to download, you can click on the “Download” button on the same page to save it.

9] That’s it! Your Facebook data will be downloaded soon, however, it might take some time depending on the size of your data file.

The downloaded ZIP file will include folders with all of your data. If you download the HTML format, it will open in Google Chrome otherwise you will have to select another app to open the JSON files.

When you open the folders and links from them, you’ll see your data Facebook collects from you.

Type of Data Facebook Collects

1. About You

Face recognition data, messenger auto-fill information, notifications, preferences, viewed videos, profiles, and pages you visited, as well as your address books or contacts.

2. Accounts and Profiles

Your linked Instagram account information and your Facebook account information.

3. Ads and businesses

Ad interests, advertisers you interact with, and your off-Facebook activity.

4. Apps and Websites

Apps or websites you’ve used Facebook to log in to, and Posts from apps or websites that you’ve given permission to post on your behalf

5. Archived Data

If you have archived any posts, it will store that data.

6. Comments

All the comments you have done on Facebook posts.

7. Events Data

Event invitations, your event responses, and your events.

8. Facebook Gaming Data

Instant games’ data you’ve played on Facebook.

9. Following and Followers

Followed pages, profiles, unfollowed pages, followers data.

10. Friends Data

Your friends’ list, sent friend requests, received friend requests and removed friends.

11. Group Data

Your groups, your posts, and comments in groups, group membership activity.

12. Your Interactions

Your interactions with friends, groups, and other people.

13. Like and Reactions

Pages or comments you’ve liked or reacted to.

14. Location Data

Information related to your location including Primary location, Device location, and Location history.

15. Market Place Data

Your activity on Facebook Marketplace.

16. Messages

All messages you’ve exchanged with friends and other people on Facebook Messenger.

17. Pages

Pages of which you are the admin, and your recommended pages.

18. Payment History

Your payment history if you’ve made payments through Facebook.

19. Photos and Videos

20. All your photos and videos that you’ve uploaded and shared on Facebook.

21. Posts

All posts you’ve shared, hidden posts, and polls you’ve created on Facebook.

22. Profile Information

Your contact info, your “About” section info from your profile, your life events, hobbies, etc.

23. Rewards Data

Your activity data on Facebook Rewards.

24. Saved Items and Collections

All the posts and other items you’ve saved on Facebook and your activity with those collections.

25. Search History Data

History of searches you’ve made on Facebook.

Also, read | Delete Facebook Search Suggestions In Search Bar on Android

26. Security and Login Information

Your login logout history, your active time on Facebook, and devices you used to access Facebook, contact verifications, etc.

27. Short Videos Data

Your short video related activity on Facebook.

28. Stories Data

Your Facebook story data and reactions to other stories.

29. Trash

Data you send to trash.

30. Video Recording and Transcription

Data of your voice recording and transcription on Facebook.

31. Your Places

A list of Facebook places you’ve created to check-in.

32. Your Topics

Topics of your interest decided by your activity on Facebook to offer better recommendations for you in different areas like Feed, News, and Videos.

Other Activity

Apart from all the above-mentioned data, Facebook also collects all activities associated with your account such as pokes, Avatars, Polls that you voted on, etc.

These types of data Facebook collects from your profile and stores. You can download a copy of your Facebook data by the above-mentioned method.

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Satyendra Pal Singh

Satyendra explores the latest happenings in the tech world and writes stories about those. He likes to play around with the latest gadgets and shares his views through articles. In his free time, you can find him watching movies/TV shows and/or reading books.

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