How To See What Facebook Knows About You

[jugoso]

We recently reported on how Facebook tracks its users as they surf the web even when they're not on Facebook, by using cookies and those "Like" buttons that you see everywhere. (And then we told you how to stop that from happening.)

But Facebook also stores a lot of information about you, some of which it shares with advertisers by allowing them to target you based on hashtags attached to your account.

It is surprisingly simple to find out what information Facebook is storing about you

http://www.businessinsider.com/what-facebook-knows-about-you-2012-9?op=1

[Cora Calliope]

Thank you for sharing this link. I've been wondering about this. By the way, why do you think that Facebook stores so much information about people?

[mysticwerewolf]

my first day on facebook they recommended 50 people to be my new friends the first person at the top ot that list was my cousin in texas. the second and third were X co-workers considering i gave them nothing but my birthday and my name i have no idea how they knew. i had not been in contact with the coworkers since they left the workplace and the cousing and i e-mailed maybe once every three months. It was spooky.

the other 47 i didn't know and had never heard of.

Edited September 21, 2012 by mysticwerewolf

[Mr.United_Nations]

my first day on facebook they recommended 50 people to be my new friends the first person at the top ot that list was my cousin in texas. the second and third were X co-workers considering i gave them nothing but my birthday and my name i have no idea how they knew. i had not been in contact with the coworkers since they left the workplace and the cousing and i e-mailed maybe once every three months. It was spooky.

the other 47 i didn't know and had never heard of.

Think its the email you use to sign up, which looks for people on your mail list and also the friends on facebook you have connections with

[Imaginarynumber1]

God, how I hate facebook.

Adblock and Ghostery. No adds, no trackers. This page alone has 4 trackers. Two from google and two from facebook, no less.

[mysticwerewolf]

considering that the only person they recommended who was on my e-mail list was my cousin, and considering i had not been on facebook for more than ten minutes while trying to figure it out before i got the list and had no friends yet I don't see how but then again i still don't understand half of facebooks so maybe.....

Edited September 21, 2012 by mysticwerewolf

[xCrimsonx]

Face Book owes me a pay check., sick of doing their paperwork for them. Oh what FB must think of my browsing! He,he. That'll teach em.

[Coffey]

Your browser itself does this anyway. Unless you use a specific one that doesn't or a program to stop it etc.

Edited September 21, 2012 by Coffey

[Jackofalltrades]

That is one of the reason's why I do not and will not use Facebook

I have done in the past (for an online game), but then I used Bogus information to join it

I do not see why so many people are willing to put so much personal information on Facebook or any other social networking site,

Which can be used by criminal's (I,D theft etc) and various other people/organisation's

[Coffey]

That is one of the reason's why I do not and will not use Facebook

I have done in the past (for an online game), but then I used Bogus information to join it

I do not see why so many people are willing to put so much personal information on Facebook or any other social networking site,

Which can be used by criminal's (I,D theft etc) and various other people/organisation's

There was loads of burglaries last year or the year before which where facebook related. They would go round to peoples houses when they said they where off on holiday on their facebook. lol

Most of the time profiles are private so most of those must have been their own friends. Haha

[mysticwerewolf]

when i signed up i gave them my e-mail, my name and the year of my birth, ( to prove i was way over 18) I gave them nothing else. but with sociey's information being available that may have been enough. i didn't want anything to do with facebook but finally had no real choice. needed it to try to get a specific job ( which i didn't get) so i guess I am stuck with it. No biggie the only thing face book will get from me in the future is pictures of my dogs.

Edited September 22, 2012 by mysticwerewolf

[Orcseeker]

A guy I knew clicked on an ad once for mountain climbing gear on Facebook. He didn't do anything in the site but long long after he received an email from the owner of the site asking him about if he was interested in any mountain climbing gear.

Facebook has also started scanning chat logs for higher level criminal behaviour abd will then pass it onto the authorities with algorithms that they boast can tell if someone is gay before they even know it.

I'd try give facebook as little info you can give it.

[F3SS]

I got off of Facebook almost two years ago because of this crap. That and endless posts of people's private lives that would infuriate me if someone in my house was posting things like that, not to mention embarrassing family members too. Oh yea, and viruses.

Anyhow... Since you're new to facebook I would suggest diving into your account settings. In there you should find a seemingly endless abyss of privacy settings that tell you how and who they may share with. There are literally tons of them but it would behoove you to go through each one and check them off as you see fit. It's time consuming and a little confusing but well worth it. I had it down towere I was pretty sure I wasn't allowing any sharing of information. Also, I'd suggest to periodically check back on your settings because IIRC Facebook would occasionally update their programs and privacy stuff and there would be new settings that would pop up defaulted of course to share everything plus some of the old stuff would be rearranged back to default. It's a hassle by design I'm sure, but there are ways to keep the sharing at bay.

One last thing, getting off Facebook isn't as easy as clicking a delete account button. It's also a time consuming process that almost makes you want to say forget it, it's not worth it and quit the process and of course keeping your account and once you do finally complete the process it takes another couple weeks before they completely delete your account. They'll tell you that during the process. They also tell you that they own all your posts and pictures for eternity too.

This is the only Internet community I belong to. It's easy, more interesting and far less invasive. I hope you can use some of my input here though I must reiterate that it's been some time since I was on Facebook and can't promise it's still the same but I would guess much of what I said still applies.