Tuesday 11 September 2012

What might Facebook really know about me?

Let’s get it straight. I’m an admirer of Facebook and I find it a great way of keeping in touch with friends. And that’s why many hundreds of millions of us use it. This blog is not meant to knock the organisation.

What I also like about Facebook is the way it is capable of remembering so much about me (so long, of course, as I gave them the information in the first place). As far as I am concerned, this is useful – as I can now forget lots of stuff, clear it right out of my brain, yet always know that if I really did want that nugget of virtually useless information, it just might have been preserved. And, thanks to the great tools that Facebook has developed, it’s astonishingly easy to get hold of it, too.

In honour of our Facebook chums, and the hundreds of millions of Facebook users, I’ve reproduced some helpful guidance from their site which lists the sort of stuff that Facebook may know about us, just in case we had forgotten it and ever needed to know it again.

And to help you memorise the list, the stuff is grouped in alphabetical order, with a gap after every 5 items so you can take another breath:

About Me: Information you added to the About section of your timeline like relationships, work, education, where you live and more. It includes any updates or changes you made in the past and what’s currently in the About section of your timeline.
Account Status History: The dates when your account was reactivated, deactivated, disabled or deleted.
Address: Your current address or any past addresses you had on your account.
Alternate Name: Any alternate names you have on your account (ex: a maiden name or a nickname).
Apps: All of the apps you subscribe to.

Birthday Visibility: How your birthday appears on your timeline.
Chat: A history of the conversations you’ve had on Facebook Chat
Check-ins: All of the places you’ve checked into.
Connections: The people who have liked your Page or Place, RSVPed to your event, installed your app or checked in to your advertised place within 24 hours of viewing or clicking on an ad or Sponsored Story.
Currency: Your preferred currency on Facebook. If you use Facebook Payments, this will be used to display prices and charge your credit cards.

Current City: The city you added to the About section of your timeline.
Date of Birth: The date you added to Birthday in the About section of your timeline.
Deleted Friends: The people you’ve unfriended.
Education: Any information you added to Education in the About section of your timeline.
Emails: Email addresses added to your account (even those you may have removed).

Events: Events you’ve joined or been invited to.
Family: Friends you’ve indicated are family members.
Favourite Quotes: Information you’ve added to the Favourite Quotes section of the About section of your timeline.
Friend Requests: Pending sent and received friend requests.
Friends: A list of your friends.

Gender: The gender you added to the About section of your timeline.
Groups: A list of groups you belong to on Facebook.
Hidden from News Feed: Any friends, apps or pages you’ve hidden from your News Feed.
Hometown: The place you added to hometown in the About section of your timeline (profile).
IP Addresses: A list of addresses where you’ve logged into your Facebook account.

Last Location: The last location associated with an update.
Likes on Other’s Posts: Posts, photos or other content you’ve liked.
Likes on Your Posts from others: Likes on your own posts, photos or other content.
Likes on Other Sites: Likes you’ve made on other sites off of Facebook.
Locale: The language you see on Facebook is based on where you’re located.

Logins: IP address, date and time associated with logins to your Facebook account.
Logouts: IP address, date and time associated with logouts from your Facebook account.
Messages: Archive of messages you’ve sent and received on Facebook.
Name: The name on your Facebook account.
Name Changes: Any changes you’ve made to the original name you used when you signed up for Facebook.

Networks: Networks (affiliations with schools or workplaces) that you belong to on Facebook.
Notes: Any notes you’ve written and published to your account.
Notification Settings: A list of all your notifications and whether you have email and text enabled or disabled for each.
Pages You Admin: A list of pages you admin.
Phone Numbers: Mobile phone numbers you’ve added to your account.

Photos: Any photos you’ve uploaded to your account.
Physical Tokens: Badges you’ve added to your account.
Pokes: A list of who’s poked you and who you’ve poked.
Political Views: Any information you added to Political Views in the About section of timeline.
Your Posts: Anything you posted to your own timeline, like photos, videos and status updates.

Posts by Others: Anything you posted to someone else’s timeline (profile), like photos, videos and status updates.
Recent Activities: Actions you’ve taken and interactions you’ve recently had.
Registration Date: The date you joined Facebook.
Religious Views: The information you added to Religious Views in the About section of your timeline.
Screen Names: The screen names you’ve added to your account, and the service they’re associated with. You can also see if they’re hidden or visible on your account.

Searches: Searches you’ve made on Facebook.
Spoken Languages: The languages you added to Spoken Languages in the About section of your timeline.
Status Updates: Any status updates you’ve posted.
Subscribers: A list of people who are subscribed to you.
Subscriptions: A list of people you subscribe to.

Tag Suggestions Template: A unique number based on a comparison of the photos you're tagged in. Facebook use this template to help your friends tag you in the photos they upload.
Work: Any information you’ve added to Work in the About section of your timeline.
Videos: Videos you’ve posted.


Source:
http://www.facebook.com/help/326826564067688