There has been a crisis of trust at Facebook inspired by the Cambridge Analytica debacle in the last presidential election which has led many users to understand something that they may not have realized: Facebook’s users are not their customers. They are actually their product!

As a result, Facebook has a new data policy where you can now download the data that Facebook collects about you. I casually decided to go ahead and take a look. When I reviewed my voluminous report, I was shocked to learn what they kept track of for ten years (and perhaps sold to others?).

Here is a sample:

Posts: Every post you ever shared or were tagged in. All your likes and other reactions to other posts. Every video and picture you shared.

Comments: All comments that you posted on any Facebook page.

Friends: All your friends, friend requests and unfriends.

Messenger: All your messages that were sent or received.

Payments: History of payments (and perhaps credit card information) made through Facebook.

Advertising: All the ads you interacted with ever.

Search: Your entire search history! Even the videos you have watched!

Location: All your locations when checking in or using Facebook.

Profile: Everything about you! Birth date, phone number, email address, and facial recognition (to recognize you in photos.)

When I looked at each individual file of these different areas, I had forgotten so much of my activity over the last ten years, but Facebook had not. It was kind of a creepy wake up call for me.

I know we all understand this, but Facebook tracks everything you do on its site. Everything! So, don’t use it in anyway that someday you may regret. It also tracks everything that people post about you.

Over ten years, Facebook has tracked my every key stroke. Should that scare me? Not really, but it does scare me that they are sharing it with others.

What did you find out when you downloaded your data?