How can I download a copy of my Facebook data?

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Facebook’s privacy practices are now under investigation, as confirmed by the Federal Trade Commission and everyone is asking what has Facebook got on me and How can I download a copy of my Facebook data.
Its been a while since I wrote about Facebook, its usually about scams or Facebook live but not this time, now people are not happy with Facebook, they have lost trust.
Don’t panic – its really easy to Download your information and you can then see, if it’s worse than you thought.
Although its not likely to be all of the data since you joined Facebook, stuff that has been deleted will have been deleted from Facebook’s servers.
Facebook help say this…
Remember, most of your Facebook data is available to you by logging into your account. Also note the categories of data we receive, collect, and save may change over time. We’ll update these tables if that happens.

So what they are saying is most of the information here, is readily available on your account – either stuff you have shared with the world (your timeline)  – which you can see in your about me or on your activity log.

However – this is the data that they have stored

What info is available? What is it?
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 is currently in the About section of your timeline.
Account Status History The dates when your account was reactivated, deactivated, disabled or deleted.
Active Sessions All stored active sessions, including date, time, device, IP address, machine cookie and browser information.
Ads Clicked Dates, times and titles of ads clicked (limited retention period).
Address Your current address or any past addresses you had on your account.
Ad Topics A list of topics that you may be targeted against based on your stated likes, interests and other data you put in your timeline.
Alternate Name Any alternate names you have on your account (ex: a maiden name or a nickname).
Apps All of the apps you have added.
Birthday Visibility How your birthday appears on your timeline.
Chat A history of the conversations you’ve had on Facebook Chat (a complete history is available directly from your messages inbox).
Check-ins The places you’ve checked into.
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.
Education Any information you added to Education field 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.
Facial Recognition Data A unique number based on a comparison of the photos you’re tagged in. We use this data to help others tag you in photos.
Family Friends you’ve indicated are family members.
Favorite Quotes Information you’ve added to the Favorite Quotes section of the About section of your timeline.
Followers A list of people who follow you.
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.
IP Addresses A list of IP addresses where you’ve logged into your Facebook account (won’t include all historical IP addresses as they are deleted according to a retention schedule).
Locale The language you’ve selected to use Facebook in.
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 Messages you’ve sent and received on Facebook. Note, if you’ve deleted a message it won’t be included in your download as it has been deleted from your account.
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.
Pages You Admin A list of pages you admin.
Pending Friend Requests Pending sent and received friend requests.
Phone Numbers Mobile phone numbers you’ve added to your account, including verified mobile numbers you’ve added for security purposes.
Photos Photos you’ve uploaded to your account.
Photos Metadata Any metadata that is transmitted with your uploaded photos.
Physical Tokens Badges you’ve added to your account.
Pokes A list of who’s poked you and who you’ve poked. Poke content from our mobile poke app is not included because it’s only available for a brief period of time. After the recipient has viewed the content it’s permanently deleted from our systems.
Political Views Any information you added to Political Views in the About section of timeline.
Posts by Others Anything posted to your timeline by someone else, like wall posts or links shared on your timeline by friends.
Recent Activities Actions you’ve taken and interactions you’ve recently had.
Registration Date The date you joined Facebook.
Religious Views The current information you added to Religious Views in the About section of your timeline.
Removed Friends People you’ve removed as friends.
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.
Spoken Languages The languages you added to Spoken Languages in the Aboutsection of your timeline.
Status Updates Any status updates you’ve posted.
Work Any current information you’ve added to Work in the About section of your timeline.
Videos Videos you’ve posted to your timeline.
If after all that you are still asking

How can I download a copy of my Facebook data?

Then this is how to download your own information that Facebook has
Go to your Facebook Profile, click at the top of on the far right – arrow down.
Click Settings
In General account settings at the bottom, it says
Download a copy of your Facebook data.
When you click this you will get to download the archive – you will have to put in your password and then they will email you when it is ready
You’ll be sent a zip file to then unzip – if you have used Facebook as much as I have this might take sometime
Mine was 580mb and 5,714 Files, 43 Folders
Facebook say this…….
Protecting your privacy is at the heart of everything we do at Facebook. We need to do more to safeguard your privacy, so we’re taking action on potential past abuse and putting stronger protections in place to prevent future abuse of our platform.

  1. Notifying you if an app misused your data. Moving forward, if we remove an app for misusing data, we’ll tell everyone who used that app. We’re also building a way for you to see if your data might have been accessed through “thisisyourdigitallife,” the app that sent data to Cambridge Analytica and violated our platform policies.

  2. Making it easier to manage the apps you use. We already show you what apps your account is connected to and what data you’ve permitted those apps to use. Going forward, we’re making these choices easier to find and manage by showing you a tool at the top of your News Feed.

  3. Turning off access for unused apps. If you haven’t used an app within the last 3 months, we’ll remove the app’s access to your information.

  4. Restricting Facebook Login data. We’re changing the way login works to reduce the data that an app can request without app review. Apps can only request name, profile photo and email address. Requesting any other data will require our approval.

You can also change your tracking settings in Facebook

If you don’t want Facebook to track your behaviour so they can send you the best ads (like google already do) you can opt out of this.

Go to Settings

Click on Ads

Under Ad settings say NO>

How can I download a copy of my Facebook data

My settings were already like this and probably yours are too. But if you are concerned you could check it.

My Facebook Data seems pretty boring but now at least you know the answer to >>  How can I download a copy of my Facebook data?