This week, Facebook announced that you can now download an expanded archive of your Facebook account history. This feature Download Your Information, gives you a copy of what you’ve shared on Facebook, such as photos, posts, messages, your friends list, and chat conversations. You can also access additional categories of information, including previous names, friend requests you’ve made, and IP addresses you logged in from. This feature is available from your Facebook Account Settings.

While this gives users a snapshot of their Facebook data, some argue that it’s not enough. The archives don’t include all of the categories of data Facebook stores and they don’t clarify which particular categories of information third parties are able to see. This means that you don’t see an advertiser’s view of your data.

The Europe V Facebook group called the rollout of this new feature a “partial success” but said that Facebook is still not fulfilling its obligation under European law to grant users access to all their personal data. The Download Your Information tool only holds 22 categories as opposed to the 84 data categories users should get access to under European law.
Europe vs. Facebook has published a form with the European Commission that Facebook members can use to file a complaint about not getting full access to their data.

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