Facebook collects a significant amount of data from its users. When you sign up for and use Facebook, you provide the company with personal information, content, and contacts. Facebook also collects data on how you interact with the platform.
What information do I provide to Facebook?
When you create a Facebook account, you provide basic personal information such as:
- Name
- Email address or mobile phone number
- Date of birth
- Gender
You may also provide other information for your profile like:
- Profile photo
- Cover photo
- Education and work history
- Relationship status
- Interests and hobbies
- Contact information
When setting up your account, you can choose to provide as much or as little information as you like. However, Facebook requires users to provide their real identities.
What content do I provide to Facebook?
In addition to the personal information you provide for your profile, you also supply Facebook with content. This includes:
- Status updates
- Photos and videos
- Comments
- Messages
- Likes and reactions
- Groups joined
- Events attended
- Pages followed
- Purchases made through Facebook
Essentially any post, comment, photo, video, or other content you add on Facebook is transmitted to and stored by the company. Your messages and group conversations are also stored by Facebook.
What contacts and connections do I provide?
When you join Facebook, you can choose to upload your email and phone contacts. This allows Facebook to connect you with friends already on the platform.
You also connect with other users by:
- Friending people
- Following pages and public figures
- Joining groups
- Interacting with others’ posts and content
Facebook stores the connections between you and your friends, followers, and group members.
What data does Facebook collect about my usage and behavior?
In addition to the data you actively provide, Facebook also collects information about how you use the platform. This includes:
- Pages you visit
- Features you use
- Ads you click on or interact with
- Amount of time spent on Facebook
- Search keywords
- Device and connection information
- Purchase activity
Facebook uses data on your usage patterns and behaviors to analyze how to best serve content and ads to you.
How does Facebook collect data when I’m not using the platform?
Facebook continues gathering some data from non-users and even logged out users in the following ways:
- Facebook Pixel: Websites and apps can contain Facebook pixels that track your activity to provide analytics and serve ads.
- APIs and SDKs: Third party apps and websites may use Facebook tools and services that enable data collection.
- Social media login: Logging into outside websites/apps via Facebook enables data tracking.
- Offline data: Facebook may receive data about you from offline interactions like purchases or questionnaires.
So even if you aren’t actively using Facebook, their presence across apps, websites, and partners allows them to build profiles on non-users.
How does Facebook use the data it collects?
Facebook uses the massive amounts of data it gathers for the following purposes:
- Customizing your experience: Show you more relevant content, friends to connect with, groups to join, etc.
- Improving their services: Enhance existing features and develop new products.
- Advertising: Determine which ads are most applicable to you based on your data and activity.
- Recommending content: Surface posts, news stories, videos and other content you are likely to engage with.
- User analytics: Analyze user demographics, behavior, and trends to understand the Facebook community.
- Security and policy enforcement: Detect violations of Facebook policies.
Facebook depends on user data to power its platform and provide value for users, advertisers, developers, and partners.
Does Facebook sell my personal data?
Facebook does not directly sell your personal information like your name, email, birthday, etc. to third parties. However, Facebook does allow advertisers to target ads to users based on data like age, location, interests and more.
Facebook may provide aggregated demographic data about users to advertisers, but they don’t share information that directly identifies you without consent. However, some data may indirectly reveal identity when combined with other information.
How can I limit the data Facebook collects?
If you don’t want Facebook collecting certain information about you, here are some steps you can take:
- Avoid logging in or using Facebook services like Messenger and Instagram.
- Block Facebook cookies in your browser settings.
- Avoid logging into third party apps and sites with your Facebook account.
- Disable location services for Facebook on your mobile device.
- Adjust privacy settings like ad preferences and facial recognition.
- Delete your Facebook account if you want to stop data collection completely.
However, completely preventing Facebook from collecting any data about you is extremely difficult unless you entirely abstain from any interaction with their services and tools.
What data can I download from Facebook about me?
Facebook allows you to download the data associated with your account for your own records and to transfer to another service. You can download:
- Timeline information including posts, photos, videos, check-ins, and more.
- Messages and chat conversations.
- Your profile information.
- Friends list.
- Pages and groups you manage.
- Ads you’ve clicked on or engaged with.
- Search history.
- Location history.
- Information about other accounts you’ve logged into via Facebook.
To download your Facebook data:
- Go to your Facebook Settings.
- Click “Your Facebook Information” in the left column.
- Select “Download Your Information” and choose the data types you want.
- Click “Request Download.” Facebook will compile your archive and email you when it’s ready, usually within a few hours.
Reviewing your Facebook data can reveal the depth of information collected about you.
Conclusion
Facebook obtains vast amounts of data about its users including:
- Personal profile information you actively provide like name, birthday, interests, etc.
- Content you post like status updates, photos, videos, and more.
- Your social graph and connections to friends, groups, and pages.
- Usage data like clicks, views, time spent, searches, and other analytics.
- Information from third party sites and apps using Facebook tools and services.
Facebook leverages this data to improve their products and ads, analyze trends, customize user experiences, and more. While they don’t directly sell personal data, the breadth of information collected enables highly targeted advertising. Users can download their Facebook data for analysis and manage some privacy settings, but preventing all collection is extremely difficult without avoiding Facebook entirely. The amount of data Facebook gathers demonstrates the necessity of informed consent and thoughtful regulations when using free platforms and services.