European Users Overwhelm Facebook With Data Requests 214
An anonymous reader writes "If you've ever wondered how much personal data Facebook holds about you then prepare to be surprised. Using European data privacy laws, it's possible to request the data Facebook has stored about you. The document can total 800 pages covering everything from the expected name, address, and date of birth, right through to every event you've attended, every message you've deleted, and your political and religious views."
The best part is that Facebook has to send a physical disc containing the data. This has been exploited by a number of users, completely overwhelming Facebook's ability to make the discs.
Spoiled Children...... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:50+ Pages? Really? (Score:4, Insightful)
But you use Google, right?
Re:they could agree to send by non-CD (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Spoiled Children...... (Score:5, Insightful)
Don't assume that because you didn't create a profile yourself that Facebook doesn't have one anyway.
Re:they could agree to send by non-CD (Score:5, Insightful)
Hopefully there's some follow up from the people who have requested their data. It will be interesting to see how much stuff Facebook stores and all of the things that it knows that people would rather prefer it didn't.
Grow up, people (Score:5, Insightful)
It takes a woefully naive person to use a service like Facebook for free and not expect that Facebook is collecting your data and somehow profiting from it.
Re:they could agree to send by non-CD (Score:5, Insightful)
If Facebook finds it expensive and inconvenient to mail out physical CDs, they could agree to allow at least optional delivery by other means, such as over the internet.
If Facebook finds it expensive and inconvenient to mail out physical CDs, they could agree to simply not collect and store all that data.
There - fixed that for you!
Re:50+ Pages? Really? (Score:4, Insightful)
It's that surprising? Most people's status updates alone would take up dozens of pages.
Then of course you have your photos, videos, notes, message history, chat history, comments you've posted, tags you've received, events you've been invited to, groups you've joined, everything you've ever "liked"...
I imagine most people would be shocked to find out how many groups they're in, or how many posts, pages, or links they've "liked".
Re:Spoiled Children...... (Score:5, Insightful)
This may not be a popular viewpoint, but I think it's a very relevant issue, and I do not use Facebook. I believe its very existence is an ethical issue though. Facebook represents a truly evil company, not in the unethical-business-practices sense, but a whole different order of that, I'd say they're rapidly approaching Gestapo-evil. Facebook stores enough information to learn a lot about specific individuals, and Facebook is conditioning people to give up their privacy. It might just be one of the most useful tools for an oppressive government or unethical intelligence organization to blackmail someone or, better, ruin their public image.
Facebook is not run by idiots. Those people know what they're doing, they know they're storing even "deleted" data and they know they're building very detailed profiles on every user. They also, unlike most of actual Facebook users, probably have the intelligence and foresight to imagine how it all may be used for horrible things, so there's no way I can see them as morally innocent.