How Does Facebook Know About Me
We don’t need statistics to realize that Facebook is essential in our lives, but knowing how large it is helps us appreciate how crucial it is that Facebook has so much information on its users.
Consider the following to get a sense of exactly how large Facebook is:
Macrotrend and The Hub were used as sources.
Facebook is more than just a social media platform.
Facebook has expanded significantly over the years, both in terms of income and in terms of users. Here’s a timeline of Facebook’s development from its inception in 2004 to the present.
Because you use these applications, Facebook has access to you in three ways, and if you use all of these services on a regular basis, you can guarantee Facebook knows a lot about who you are and what you do.
What Information Does Facebook Collect About You?
Facebook gathers information on you in a number of methods, the most common of which are:
Tracking your behavior on its website and applications, including as posts, comments, messages, and responses, among other things.
Your behavior on applications that you’ve signed into using your Facebook login is being tracked.
Tracking your interaction on third-party sites using the Facebook plugin (the “Like” button).
You may change your settings to control some of the information gathered about you. However, most of Facebook’s default privacy settings allow for maximal data gathering, which means that if you don’t alter anything, Facebook will acquire data about you automatically.
Facebook is also notorious for making it tough to block them from gaining access to more of your data. If you download Facebook Messenger for the first time, for example, they make it very tempting to give them access to your phone’s contacts and messages, and they also make it difficult to realize you have alternative choice. Take a look at the images below:
As you can see, you may choose between a large blue “Turn On” button and a much tiny “Not Now” one. Then, on the first page, when you select “Not Now,” it states that denying them access means you’ll have to add your contacts one by one.
But this isn’t the case. Your Facebook friends will show immediately in your Messenger contacts list, so the only time you’ll need anything else is if you’re attempting to contact someone who has a Messenger account but not a Facebook one, which is uncommon.
If you don’t mind Facebook having access to your contacts, calls, and messages, then click “Turn On,” but this should serve as a warning that Facebook is always attempting to learn more about you.
What Happens to the Information Facebook Collects About You?
The data you give to Facebook is essential to the company’s survival. They utilize this information to build comprehensive profiles of your interests and categorize you accordingly. Then they offer their clients, who are businesses seeking to purchase advertising, access to these groups.
However, at present time, Facebook does not sell your information to anybody, despite the public’s distrust of Facebook after the Cambridge Analytica incident.
But, as far as we know, Facebook’s current strategy is to keep this information on its servers and then sell ads based on it. However, since they have so much data on so many individuals, they can offer more effective ads, which means consumers are ready to pay more to have them run. This helps to explain why Facebook is one of the world’s wealthiest and most powerful corporations.
What Personal Data Does Facebook Gather About You?
Now that you know why and how Facebook gathers information on you, here’s a quick rundown of what they have. Remember that this will vary based on your personal preferences, but there’s a good possibility that Facebook maintains records of your behavior in many of the areas listed below.
- Your Posts and Reactions
This one should come as no surprise. Facebook keeps track of everything you publish to your timeline and everything others post to your timeline, as well as every remark and “like” you provide. They then use AI algorithms to process this data in order to provide a better ad experience.
- Attendance at Events
If you accept an invitation to an event through Facebook and indicate that you will attend, Facebook saves this information in your account.
- Messages and Phone Calls
Facebook, as we would assume, keeps track of all the communications you send via its Messenger app. However, if you give Facebook access to your phone, as many of us do when we use the Messenger app, you’re giving Facebook permission to record your phone conversations and texts, and you can be sure it does.
- Location
Again, if you publish a post on Facebook and give the app permission to access your phone’s location, you’re giving Facebook permission to track your whereabouts. This implies that Facebook records your location information anytime you are logged into the app, which, let’s face it, is almost all of the time for most of us.
If you don’t like it, go to your phone’s settings and adjust your app options to prevent the Facebook app from seeing your location, but this may limit your ability to utilize certain services.
- Interests
Facebook infers more information about you than it gathers, but it’s all part of the same process. A list of your related interests is created based on the information you provide Facebook, including your browsing history and likes and dislikes. When an advertiser wants to target individuals who have shown an interest in that group, Facebook will direct them to the people who have stated that they are a member of it.
They do it with astonishing efficiency, which is one of the reasons Facebook is so wealthy.
Furthermore, the more information we provide them, the better they get at providing effective advertisements, allowing them to charge more. Finally, it’s not surprising that Facebook wants to gather as much information as possible about you. It’s vital to their company’s survival.
- Activity on the Web and Apps
Depending on how you use Facebook, it may be collecting data on you even while you aren’t on the site. Facebook does this in a variety of methods, the most frequent of which is via the Facebook login feature.
Countless firms have collaborated with Facebook to allow you to login into third-party applications using your Facebook credentials. This is a huge benefit for a lot of individuals. It eliminates the need to remember several passwords and adds an additional layer of protection; we always prefer to trust known organizations over the unknown, even if it’s Facebook.
However, by doing so, you are allowing Facebook to monitor your behavior on that app and add it to their collection of information about you. So, if you use Facebook often, it’s likely that it knows a lot more about you than you ever suspected.
- Activity on Instagram and WhatsApp
Facebook did not purchase these two major social networks for the sake of amusement. They did so because they figured it would offer them greater access to your data.
According to Facebook’s privacy policies, the corporation has the authority to connect your Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp accounts, and when it does, it will utilize information from all three to improve the profile they’ve built about you.
There are, however, certain locations where this is not permitted. Facebook, for example, is presently unable to do so in Germany and other parts of Europe, despite the fact that it is actively battling this law in order to get access to more of your personal information.
- Likes and Comments
Every time you respond to anything on Facebook is also recorded. They clearly do this on their website, but they also utilize social plugins to monitor your responses throughout the internet.
Have you ever wondered what happens when you hit the “like” button at the bottom of a CNN article? Facebook records your activity and uses it to supplement the information they already have about you.
- Photos and Posts
Facebook, as one would assume, keeps track of all the posts and pictures you make on their platform. Surprisingly, the material you post on Facebook becomes theirs immediately. According to the company’s privacy policy, they have an unrestricted license to use the material you submit, so don’t post anything you wouldn’t want to see elsewhere.
- Friend Groups and Friends
Facebook keeps track of your Facebook friends and how you interact with them in order to categorize you into groups. They then sell access to these groups to their marketers, which is huge money, as we all know.
Find out what information Facebook has on you.
As previously stated, the extent to which Facebook knows about you is determined on your permission settings. There is, however, a very simple method to learn what data has been gathered about you. Simply follow the instructions below:
- Go to Facebook and sign in.
- Choose “Settings” towards the bottom of the list by clicking on the downward facing arrow at the top right of the screen.
- Look to the top left of your settings page after you’ve arrived there. You’ll see “Your Facebook Information” as an option.
- Download your information by clicking the link.
The file will take some time to download, but once it does, you’ll be able to view all Facebook knows about you. Everything is put down in an easy-to-understand format for you. If you discover that Facebook has access to information you don’t want it to, you may adjust your privacy settings to prevent it from accessing that information.
By visiting the same link, you may get this information straight from the web. It is not necessary to download it in order to see it.
Wrap Up
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