https://www.billkochman.com/Blog/coronavirus-how to respond to the pandemic/
Note: This commentary was originally written in March of 2018. Given how quickly the situation changes with the different social networks, some of the information below — such as the URLs — may no longer be valid at the time you read it.
Some time ago, I received a shock when I discovered that in the data they had collected on me, Facebook had some personal information for my mother, my father, my brother, my daughter, my landlord, and a few other parties.
All of this data had been acquired via my “Contacts” app. Furthermore, it was done with MY PERMISSION, because I had failed to disable one of the options in Facebook’s Messenger app.
It all began when I became curious regarding what Facebook knew about me. Then I found this article on the web:
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/03/23/how-to-download-a-copy-of-facebook-data-about-you.html
You will find similar information on Facebook’s own website here . . .
https://www.facebook.com/help/302796099745838
. . . as well as here . . .
https://www.facebook.com/help/930396167085762?helpref=related&ref=related
WARNING: Before you take any of the steps which are described below, please read the full contents of each page, so that you know and fully understand what you are about to do. I don’t want anyone coming back and blaming me if you messed things up, or lost data that you didn’t want to lose.
At any rate, I followed the previous instructions on the aforementioned page, received the necessary email link, and then downloaded the zipped archive of my Facebook data.
The archive itself is in the form of a mini-website, meaning that there is an index.html document in the main folder.
So, either use the “Open With” command on your platform, or tap or double-click the index.html document, or else drop the index.html document on an open web browser window, in order to open it. The document should open in your default web browser.
You will find a lot of interesting stuff in there, such as advertisers you are linked to, etc. But one of the more sensitive ones — at least in my view — is found in the “Contact Info” section, which is the second link in the menu on the left side of the page, right below your profile image.
If you click or tap that link, you will see the names and phone numbers of people which Facebook has stored on its servers. That is where I received my shock. I am sure that said persons would not be too happy if they knew that Facebook had that info concerning them, particularly because some of them don’t even have Facebook accounts.
NOTE: Be advised that I was reading on one Facebook page that while you can only see contacts’ names and phone numbers, Facebook seems to imply that it may possess other data regarding each person, which it simply does not show you.
So, if you are concerned about this as much as I am, then what you need to do is to go to this page and carefully follow the instructions:
https://www.facebook.com/help/147699975301738?helpref=faq_content
More specifically, on the very first item that is listed on the above page, you need to click on the blue link that says “Manage Invites and Imported Contacts“. That will take you here:
https://www.facebook.com/invite_history.php
That is where you will see the options to delete invitations and contacts from Facebook’s servers.
But here’s the thing. Unless you do TWO MORE THINGS, that very same contacts data will reappear when the Messenger app, or the Facebook app, resyncs with Facebook. So, what you need to do is to prevent the Messenger app and the Facebook app from continuously uploading your contacts data to the Facebook servers. To find out how to do that in Facebook Messenger, please go here:
https://www.facebook.com/help/838237596230667
To save you time, here are the instructions for iPhones and iPads. The above page also has instructions for Android phones as well:
1. From “Home“, tap your profile picture that is located in the top left corner of your screen.
2. Tap the “People” option.
3. Tap “Synced Contacts” to turn this setting on or off. In other words, slide it to the left to disable it.
As far as the Facebook app is concerned, you will find instructions here:
https://www.facebook.com/help/355489824655936
To save you time, here are the instructions for iPhones and iPads. The above page also has instructions for Android phones as well:
1. Go into the Facebook app’s “Settings“.
2. Tap on “Account Settings” when you are presented with various options on the bottom of your screen.
3. Once that new “Settings” window appears, tap on the “General” option.
4. In the new window which appears, tap on the fourth option called “Upload Contacts“.
5. Make sure that it is disabled by sliding it to the left.
NOTE: After you have done all of the above, you should go back to the aforementioned pages and verify that your contacts info has not reappeared in the list of contacts.
By the way, I also have the desktop version of Facebook Messenger installed on my iMac, so I checked its preferences as well. From what I saw, there is no option to enable or disable uploading contacts, so I don’t know if that means that the desktop version of the Messenger app doesn’t have the capability to upload contacts, or what.
NOTE: Please note that according to everything I have read regarding this issue, unless you take the above steps, the only other way to delete the “Contact Info” data is by actually deleting your Facebook account. However, there is another caveat, and that is this: Even if you delete your account, if anyone else has shared/imported any of your personal data, it will NOT be deleted from Facebook’s servers, because that data is NOT actually a part of your Facebook account. It is a part of THEIR Facebook account.
One thing which I find a bit sneaky about all of this, is the fact that in the various tables where they list the kinds of data they collect, they do NOT mention “Contact Info” at all. Like I did, you have to dig a bit deeper into their help files to even find out this piece of information. As I said, I view it as being a bit underhanded.
WARNING: Please be aware that sometimes, when Facebook makes changes on their end, certain options are enabled again without you knowing it, so you may want to periodically check, and makes sure that the “Sync Contacts” option in the Messenger app, and the “Upload Contacts” option in the Facebook app, remain disabled.
I hope this helps some of you. Please feel free to read some of my other Facebook Notes as well, as they likewise contain valuable information which may be useful to you.