And it isn’t just Facebook that knows all this – your data is freely shared with the NSA and CIA. It’s also available, without a warrant, to every law enforcement branch in the country. Just submit a written request on official letterhead and you get access to all this.
The information is also a goldmine for hackers, who routinely exploit vulnerabilities in apps, passwords and Facebook servers to steal the information.
The data is a goldmine for marketers as well, with the company’s business model premises on selling it to marketers, who in turn target you with very specific ads.
The massive amount of data isn’t unique to Facebook. Every other social network – Instagram, Whatsapp, Snapchat and more all collected very similar data sets. So too do app makers, cellphone companies and even smartphone makers like Apple.
It’s worthwhile looking at what the company collects and asking yourself ‘do they really need to know all of this about me?’.
So as you ponder that, here is a list of everything Facebook knows about you.
The Basics
Name
Age
Gender
Birthday
Hair color
Eye color
Race
Local History
Current city of residence
Hometown
Past places I’ve lived (1)
When I moved from one location to another
How long I lived at each location
Family
My sister
My brothers-in-law (2)
My uncle
My cousins (2)
My wife
My nephew
My extended family
Relationships
My past girlfriends
When each of my past relationships began
When each of my past relationships ended
Exactly how long each of my previous relationships lasted
Contact Info
Personal phone number
Work phone number
Past phone numbers (2)
Personal email address
Work email address
Old personal email addresses (3)
Old work email addresses (2)
Financial Info
My PayPal account
My credit card number
Friends
All of my friends’ names
Which friends I’m actually friends with and which ones are just on my friends list
Which friends I don’t actually like talking to
Which friends I blocked on Messenger to avoid awkward conversations
Which friends I like enough to get updates from
Which friends I like so much that I have subscribed to their every action
Education
High school I attended
College I attended
Years I attended each school
Year I graduated from high school
Year I graduated from college
Employment Info
Career
Current job
Past jobs (3)
Length of employment at past jobs
Personal Details
Languages I speak
Political leanings
Who I voted for (national elections)
Who I voted for (local elections)
Religious beliefs
Online Social Life
My AIM screenname
My MSN screenname
My LinkedIn profile
My Twitter profile
My Myspace profile
My Foursquare profile
My Yelp profile
My Tumblr blogs (2)
The sites I comment on
Gaming Life
My Xbox Live gamertag
My PlayStation network ID
My Wii friend code
My Wii U friend code
My 3DS friend code
My Steam ID
Your Faves
My favorite bands
My favorite TV shows
My favorite movies
My favorite books
My favorite console video games
My favorite PC video games
My favorite foods
My favorite color
My favorite websites
My favorite Twitch.tv streamers
My favorite iOS apps
My favorite Android apps
My favorite coffee shop
My favorite pizza place
My favorite football team
My favorite baseball team
Events
Weddings I’ve attended or avoided
Parties I’ve attended or avoided
Sporting events I’ve attended to avoided
Meetings I’ve attended or avoided
Everything else I’ve been invited to that I did or did not attend
Detailed Travel History
Every place I’ve visited in roughly the past decade
Every work trip I’ve been on since I began my career
How long each trip lasted, and my days of arrival and departure
What hotel I stayed at during my first visit to Los Angeles
What hotels I stayed at during each subsequent visit to Los Angeles
Where I stayed during my trips to CES in Las Vegas
Where I ate on my last in night in Las Vegas, and who I was with
Where I stayed during my trip to North Carolina
What kind of car I rented while I was in North Carolina
Athletics
Which sports I played in school
The fact that I don’t really like baseball and have never visited my team’s page
How well I do in fantasy football
What my punishment was for placing last overall in fantasy football in 2013
Connected Apps
My eBay account
My Amazon account
Many of my Amazon purchases
My Audible account
Which audiobooks I’ve purchased on Audible
Which audiobooks I’ve actually listened to after purchasing them
My various app habits
Which friends I’ve invited to play apps with me
Map My Ride Data
How often I work out
The length of my bike rides
The routes I like to take for my bike rides
The time of day I usually go for bike rides
Spotify Data Sharing
My morning playlists
My deep focus playlist
How often I listen to each song
My most-played songs of all time
Which songs I consider guilty pleasures
Which songs I (embarrassingly) listen to on repeat for hours
Facebook Usage
Where I use Facebook
What device I have connected to Facebook
Every device I’ve ever used to connect to Facebook
Every browser I’ve ever used to connect to Facebook
Every one of the 127 apps I’ve used my Facebook login on
Now imagine someone got this data and wanted to use it for evil. Or use it to make money from you.
It wouldn’t be at all hard to find ways to blackmail you or cause a great deal of destruction to your life.
Now imagine what the NSA knows about you and, more importantly, our elected officials.
Stay Connected
