Facebook Now Lets You Download More of Your Account History

Ever wonder what information Facebook is collecting about you? Well, you’ve been able to find out since 2010, when Facebook first introduced the Download Your Information feature.

Now the company has announced that it’s making the downloads even more thorough. On top of the photos, posts, messages and list of friends that you could download before, now you can get information on things like previous Facebook names, friend requests and the IP addresses you’ve logged in from.

(MORE: Dear Facebook: Here’s How to Not Screw Up Instagram)

The process is pretty simple. Go to Account Settings and at the bottom of the page should be a link that says “Download a copy of your Facebook data.” (The feature is rolling out gradually, so it might not be available for you yet.) Click it and your report will be emailed it you. My 26.3 MB file took more than an hour to reach me.  Was it useful? If you have the time to search through a huge folder filled with jpegs and HTML files, sure.

Of course, this won’t stop Facebook from using your photos in embarrassing ads or make its privacy settings any less confusing, but it’s still nice to know what information it has on you. In a blog post, Facebook said “more categories of information will be available for download in the future.”

As for those new categories, may I suggest the following: people who have tagged you in pictures and the number of times a user has been featured in Sponsored Stories. Also, if they could somehow organize and sum up the information, that would be nice too.

In other Facebook news, the site announced that it’s making addresses consistent across the site, meaning the address that people use to send you email on Facebook is the same one they’ll use to find your Timeline. This will both make you easier to find and, Facebook hopes, make you more likely to use its email product.

FTC Calls for Better Transparency, Warns Google About Latest Changes

Federal Trade Commissioner Julie Brill has a simple message for companies that violate user privacy: We took care of Facebook, we took care of Google, and we’ll take care of you, too. Even bolder, her remarks came during an event that was livestreamed via Facebook itself.

Brill, speaking at a cybersecurity forum in Washington D.C. earlier this week, said the FTC felt that “consumers should not have to give up control over their most sensitive data as the toll to enter the information superhighway,” calling such a price “just bad business.”

(MORE: Senators Ask FTC to Investigate Google Just Two Months After Last Investigation)

Brill went on to demand a higher level of transparency from companies about the user information they harvest, saying:

Companies should provide consumers with more information about what is being done with their personal information. One way of putting this principle into practice is providing consumers with access to the information about them that a company possesses. Access is critical, particularly when we’re talking about entities that consumers can’t identify or don’t even know exist—like data brokers. These entities control details about consumers that can have a direct impact on their credit, employment status, and financial well-being.

We are also seeing entities that combine data from multiple sources, including off line and social networks… I am calling on data brokers to take the transparency principle and put it into practice. Develop a user friendly one-stop shop where consumers can gain access to information that data brokers have amassed about them and, in appropriate circumstances, can correct that information.

In the meantime, she continued, the FTC will continue to step in where it sees blatant abuses of user trust or privacy policy. “Facebook and Google learned this the hard way,” Brill said, talking about the FTC investigations into both companies that ended with settlements resulting in changes to privacy policies and transparency, along with periodic audits for the next couple of decades to ensure they’re keeping on the straight and narrow.

Such audits may figure into Google’s future sooner rather than later, in fact. After delivering her prepared remarks, Brill was asked about the changes Google is making to its services, including its controversial “Search, plus Your World” features. “We do have an outstanding consent order with Google, so it wouldn’t be appropriate for me to comment about it at this time,” Brill answered. “It is something that is certainly of interest to us.” Consider that a subtle warning, Google. After all, you already know what it’s like when the FTC goes after you.

FACEBOOK 5 Things You Should Know Before the Facebook Timeline Switch Happens

As we mentioned recently, Facebook Timeline is coming whether you like or not. In the next few weeks, your Facebook profile will be assimilated, giving you seven days to get your house in order before everyone can browse through your virtual history.

Earlier, I wrote a full account of why Timeline is both awesome and a little disturbing, and what you can do to prepare for it — but in the interest of time, here are some basics for getting your profile ready for Facebook Timeline.

(MORE: Two Minute Video: Getting Started with Facebook Timeline)

1. ‘Hide from Timeline’ Is Your Friend

Get ready to click “Hide from Timeline” a lot. You can find it under the “Edit or Remove” pencil icon that comes up when you hover your mouse over the top right corner of every Timeline post. Remember, it’s not just embarrassing photos that Timeline unearths — it’s every inappropriate status update you’ve ever posted and every asinine message your old college buddies have ever written on your wall at 3 a.m.

If you’ve had Facebook for a long time, you’re going to want to spend at least an hour combing through everything in your virtual past and hiding what you don’t want seen. You can also remove or hide posts through your “Activity Log,” which presents everything posted on your profile in a more compact, easy-to-digest form.

2. Smile! Your Album Covers Are Now Huge

Before, old photo albums hid in an archive — a collection of small thumbnails that only the most committed Facebook stalker would search through. Now it’s all front and center on your Timeline. That means that the photo of you drinking a giant novelty margarita in Las Vegas could now be displayed in unsettling clarity in one of Timeline’s two giant columns. If you want to keep your photo albums visible, but just want to switch the cover to something a little less embarrassing, click “Change Primary Photo” in the “Edit or Remove” menu.

3. The Internet Knows Where You Are

Photos and photo albums can now be tagged with locations, which are then displayed neatly on a map. That means if your friend geotags your album “Vacation Time,” all of a sudden instead of just photos from a cabin in the woods, everyone can tell that your August vacation took place near Lake Tahoe. Now you have to either untag yourself from every geotagged photo or have your friend manually remove the geotag from every photo you’re in. It’s a total pain. Welcome to Timeline.

4. Violation of Privacy? There’s an App for That

A lot of the apps out there for Timeline are pretty cool, but a few venture into TMI territory or, at the very least, turn your profile into a kind of corporate billboard. Think carefully before you let a third-party app have permission to automatically add activity to your Timeline. Do you really want everyone to know where and what you’re eating at all times or what products you’re buying online?

You can always manage your apps by clicking on “Account Settings” in the very top right pull-down menu on your profile. Then click “Apps,” and you’ll be presented with a list of all the apps that have access to your Timeline. Remove the ones you don’t like or, under “App activity privacy,” change who can and can’t see the content posted by that app.

Remember, you can always remove any individual embarrassing app revelations on your Timeline by clicking “Hide from Timeline.”