Social networking: What facebook knows about you

The Austrian law student Max Schrems managed to get his data from facebook. We visualised his data.

This graph shows you the exact login-times. Bild: Michael Kreil

A couple of months ago the Austrian law student Max Schrems asked facebook to send him all their data stored about him. All Europeans have a right to do this. Because facebook is based in Dublin, Ireland. It took a while and then facebook sent Max a CD with 1222 PDF files.

Schrems was surprised how much the social network knows about him and his friends. And how much it remembers. In theory, people at facebook could read all of his facebook messages. And find out what he has written on criminal law.

The content of these messages might interest advertisers who place customised adverts. Customised advertising probably earnt facebook around two billion dollars in 2011. What Schrems writes to his friends might also one day interest the police - or hackers. facebook keeps the messages even after Max has deleted them, deep down in its servers.

And facebook knows exactly when Schrems writes messages. And it remembers when Schrems logs on. So even weeks later it can be established precisely at what time Max used facebook.

facebook also sent a CD with data to Schrems' friend Lisa. It knows much more about her because Lisa has taken photos with her i-phone. With GPS coordinates, the data can be used to work out exactly where she was.

With biometric facial recognition, which Mark has introduced to facebook, it is possible to know about millions of people exactly who was where when.

So it would be nice to know much more about Max Schrems' data - for example which biometric data facebook stores. But facebook says that they don't want to reveal any more. It's a confidential business matter.

Schrems has now complained to Ireland's data protection commissioner, who only recently has started an audit.

The graphs: 1.222 pages // logins // message activity // network // pictures in vienna // wordle

Comments

[GrafDal]

In diesem Video wird darauf hingewiesen, dass Fortsetzungen geplant sind, wie ist der Fall ausgegangen? Wurde das von der TAZ weiter verfolgt?

[iliana]

Hello! I have the same question as Mikko :

How or where (or both) can I order my private data??

At the bottom of the "Account Settings" page, there is a "Download a copy" of your personal data. Some time ago I did ask for a copy. However, in this copy that I downloaded from facebook the only thing that was included was my album of photos! It was suppose to include (as seen in the "Download Your Information" page on fb):

What's in your archive?

Any photos or videos you've shared on Facebook

Your Wall posts, messages and chat conversations

Your friends' names and some of their email addresses

(Note: We'll only include email addresses for friends who've allowed this in their account settings.)

Plus, I wasn't ever asked to fill in a "Personal data request"........

Can u please, give us the details of how and where can we find this "personal data request" and receive the cd with our info???

Thank you....

[Mikko]

Where/how can I order my private data?

[Florian Heer]

Lieber michael,

das Facebook-Icon wird bei der TAZ offensichtlich nicht von einem Facebook-Server ausgeliefert, sondern als Grafik von einem TAZ-Server. Somit zwingen sie den Browser eben nicht, Daten an Facebook zu senden.

Ob das allerdings mit den Geschäftsbedingungen von Facebook vereinbar ist, ist eine andere Frage.

[michael]

Liebe Taz: Ihr müsstet diesen Facebook-Button von Euren Seiten nehmen oder ihn modifizieren: Facebook speichert auch Surfdaten von allen Seiten, auf denen dieser Button zu finden ist. (s. http://www.heise.de/ct/artikel/2-Klicks-fuer-mehr-Datenschutz-1333879.html )