Have you ever seen this before? Most likely not and especially not if you live in the United States. In short the US champions the business and in Europe we champion the user – which is great (unless you’re starting a business). Here in Europe, there is a lot of that always formidable red tape to get through to free up your users information if you’re a business. Interestingly, us Europeans seem to allow our government a lot more access to us and our corporations very little (relatively speaking) while in the US they’re doing just the opposite. We don’t like the idea of corporations taking our data and we definitely don’t believe them when they ‘promise’ not to use it. Just ask Germany. But we’re giving away a lot more than we’ve been realising. But now, the penny is starting to drop.
This form is what you need to fill in if you want to find out what Facebook knows about you. That may sound a bit strange. Obviously I know what Facebook knows…I voluntarily gave it that information. I think.
I have often found myself amazed at the volumes of information websites can pull from us without us ever thinking about it. So…do I really know what Facebook knows? Well this is how I find out. After you request your information, Facebook has to supply a hard copy of your data within 40 days. However, upon submitting your request you are currently likely to receive an email stating that there will be a delay and according to Europe VS Facebook they are in no rush to stay within the boundaries of the law either. Facebook, it seems, believes that YOUR information about what you’ve done on their site is THEIR property. Right.
There is a non-law enforcing way to export your data via facebook.com/download with the option at the bottom of the menu. However, I did this about a week ago and am yet to receive anything. From personal experience it would seem Facebook is keen to advertise a willingness to show me my data but in actual fact it’s all smoke and mirrors and they have no intention of sharing. This I do not ‘like’. Now, it could be coincidence and perhaps Facebook is overloaded with requests but I think if people really knew how much information Facebook had on them they would reconsider how they use the service. I’ve always said, if facebookageddon (formally known as MySpaceageddon) was ever going to happen then it would have to be something big, and it would have something to do with privacy. Perhaps they are delaying and denying because this could really scare people.
We’re submitting a request and we’d recommend you do to, take ownership of your own data – it’s going to be really important someday soon.
CLICK HERE TO RECLAIM YOUR DATA FROM FACEBOOK
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