So we all know that Facebook’s strongpoint hasn’t exactly been the way that it handles data. And since Zuckerberg’s big announcement last week about the new Timeline project, which is supposed to be a collective “story of your life” available for others to see online, has made data protection agencies a bit anxious – just how does Facebook plan on ‘collecting’ all of the information needed to create a Timeline for its 800 million users? The answer can be a bit disturbing to some: it already has it.
Okay, well maybe not everything, but Facebook certainly does have a lot of information about its users. In fact, there is no true way to delete anything that has been posted onto Facebook. Every piece of information is saved on Facebook’s servers. Seems as though this wouldn’t be legal, right? Well, Facebook seems to think it’s completely okay. In fact, Facebook believes that its users’ data can be considered “trade secrets [and] intellectual property”, as described in an email from Facebook written to Max Schrems, an Austrian law student currently filing a lawsuit against Facebook through an initiative known as Europe vs. Facebook.

Well, just in case you may have any concerns about what might be hiding in some secret Facebook servers on the other side of the planet, there is a possibility to obtain all of the data concerning you from Facebook. After much searching, Max Schrems found a link to do just that: https://www.facebook.com/help/contact.php?show_form=data_requests

A form appears that users must fill out in order to retrieve their data. Also, a copy of the user’s personal identity card or passport must also be sent to retrieve the data. As far as we know, this only works for people residing within the EU, and Facebook only has to respond if the user enters the following law:

Section 4 DPA oder Art. 12 Directive 95/46/EG

A couple days later, the user should receive an email confirming the request. A few weeks later, a CD-ROM should arrive from the US containing a PDF with (allegedly) all of the data that concerns you on Facebook’s servers. However, it should be noted that after completing the form, I received an email stating:

“Due to the volume of personal data access requests that we have recently received, we are experiencing significant delay in processing such requests. We therefore are unlikely to respond within 40 days of your initial request. We appreciate your patience and will respond as soon as possible.”

So maybe I’ll be lucky this year and get a nice little Christmas present from the guys in Silicon Valley. Guess we’ll have to wait and see. But we would certainly like to encourage all of our readers to take advantage of the opportunity to obtain their data. Perhaps if Facebook gets too many requests, it might consider changing a few of its policies concerning the way they handle our data.