Accessing Your Info
There are several ways to find your Facebook data.
- Log Into Your Facebook Account: Most of your data is available to you by logging into your account. For example, your Timeline contains posts you've shared on Facebook, along with comments and other interactions from people. You can also find your message and chat conversations by going to your inbox, or photos and videos you've added or been tagged in by going to those sections of your Timeline.
- Visit Your Activity Log: Within your account, your activity log is a history of your activity on Facebook. From your activity log, you can review and manage things you share, from posts you've commented on or liked to apps you have used or anything you've searched for. Learn more about your activity log.
- Download Your Info: You can download a file of your information that includes much of the same info available in your account and activity log. This file includes your Timeline info, posts you've shared, messages, photos and more. It also includes info that's not available by logging into your account, like the ads you've clicked on, IP addresses logged when you log into or out of Facebook, and more. Learn how to download a copy of your Facebook data.
You can download your information from your settings. To download your information:
- Click
at the top right of any Facebook page and select Settings - Click Download a copy of your Facebook data below your General Account Settings
- Click Start My Archive
Because this download contains your profile information, you should keep it secure and be careful when storing, sending or uploading it to any other services.
Learn more about what info is included in your download. If you don't have a Facebook account, you can make a data access request.
We encourage you to have a look at the Data Policy, which describes:
- The categories of data being processed by Facebook,
- The personal data that Facebook receives from Facebook members,
- The purpose or purposes of the processing of such data,
- The source or sources(s) of the data, if known, and
- The recipients or categories of recipients to whom Facebook members’ personal data are or may be disclosed
Something that’s public can be seen by anyone. That includes people who aren’t your friends, people off of Facebook and people who use different media such as print, broadcast (ex: television) and other sites on the Internet. For example, if you use our services to provide a real-time public comment to a television show, that may appear on the show or elsewhere on Facebook.
What information is public?
Information you share that is always public: Some of the information you give us when you fill out your profile is public, such as your age range, language and country. We also use a part of your profile, called your Public Profile, to help connect you with friends and family. Your Public Profile includes your name, gender, username and user ID (account number), profile picture, cover photo and networks. This info is also public. Some of the ways this helps us connect you are:
- Your name, profile picture and cover photo help people recognize you
- Gender helps us describe you (ex: "Add her as a friend")
- Listing your networks (ex: school, workplace) allows others to find you more easily
- Username and user ID (ex: your account number) are in the URL of your profile
- Age range helps provide you with age-appropriate content
- Language and country help us provide appropriate content and experiences
Information you share publicly: When you choose to share something with Public (ex: when you select Public from the audience selector), it’s considered public information. If you share something and you don’t see an audience selector or another privacy setting, that information is also public. Learn more about using the audience selector to control who you share with when you post to Facebook.
Stuff other people share: If other people share info about you, even if it’s something you shared with them but did not make public, they can choose to make it public. Also when you comment on other people’s public posts, your comment is public as well.
Posts on Facebook Pages or public groups: Facebook Pages and public groups are public spaces. Anyone who can see the Page or group can see your post or comment. Generally, when you post or comment on a Page or to a public group, a story can be published in News Feed as well as other places on or off Facebook.
Remember that public information can:
- Be associated with you, even off Facebook
- Show up when someone does a search on Facebook or on another search engine
- Be accessible to Facebook-integrated games, applications and websites you and your friends use
- Be accessible to anyone who uses our APIs, such as our Graph API
When you choose to delete something you shared on Facebook, we remove it from the site. Some of this information is permanently deleted from our servers; however, some things can only be deleted when you permanently delete your account.
If you'd like to request more information about personal data stored by Facebook, please fill out this form from a computer.
Additionally, if you don't have a Facebook account, you can opt out of receiving emails from Facebook by clicking the link at the bottom of any invitation email.
Account Contents
Federal law does not allow private parties to obtain account contents (ex: messages, Timeline posts, photos) using subpoenas. See the Stored Communications Act, 18 U.S.C. § 2701 et seq.
Parties to litigation may satisfy party and non-party discovery requirements relating to their Facebook accounts by producing and authenticating the contents of their accounts and by using Facebook’s "Download Your Information" tool, which is accessible through the Settings drop down menu.
If a person cannot access their content, Facebook may, to the extent possible, attempt to restore access to deactivated accounts to allow the person to collect and produce their content, however Facebook cannot restore account content deleted by that person. Facebook preserves account content only in response to a valid law enforcement request.
Account Information
Facebook may provide basic subscriber information (not content) where the requested information is indispensable to the case, and not within a party’s possession upon personal service of a valid federal, California or California domesticated subpoena and after notice to people affected.
Parties seeking basic subscriber information must specifically identify accounts by email address and Facebook user ID (UID). Names, birthdays, locations, and other information are insufficient. UIDs may be found in the uniform resource locator available in a browser displaying the account in question. For example, in the URL http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=12345678910, 12345678910 is the UID.
No, we don't sell any of your information to anyone and we never will.
You have control over how your information is shared. To learn more about the controls you have, visit Facebook Privacy Basics.