Over time, you’ve told Facebook a lot about yourself. You told the social network what email you use, you told it where you live, you told it your relationship status, you told it who your friends are, and so much more.

How much does Facebook know about you? Well…quite a lot. Below I tell you how to download a copy of your Facebook data and thus see everything that Facebook knows about you.

Step 1 – Access the 'General Account Settings' Menu

If you’re logged into your Facebook account, just click this link and it will take you to the General Account Settings page. Alternatively you can go to Facebook.com, log into your account, click the dropdown menu from the upper right hand side, and select Settings.



Step 2 – Click 'Download a Copy'

Down at the bottom on the General Account Settings page there’s a Download a Copy link. Click it. Then click on “Start My Archive”. You’ll get a prompt that says Facebook will gather all the info it has on you and will send it to your email address.



Step 3 – Download Your Facebook Data

Check your inbox for an email from Facebook. The email contains a link to your Facebook data. Click the link, download your data (a ZIP archive), and find out what Facebook knows about you.



Please note that for security reasons, Facebook will repeatedly ask you to provide your Facebook password. Facebook does this to make sure that you’re the one who wants to download your Facebook data and not someone else.

Check out this help article to see what data may be in your download.

In related news...

Facebook recently announced that it updated the News Feed with the aim of putting a stop to stories that are hoaxes. Facebook rolled out this update after many users provided feedback and said they would like to see less hoaxes and misleading news in their feeds.