Facebook held 1,222 PDF pages of data on 24 year old
A 24 year old student who requested his personal information from Facebook received 1,222 PDF pages of data.
Max Schrems, an Austrian law student, asked Facebook to send him all the personal data it had on him. He used European data protection laws which allow individuals to access personal details about them from organisations.
Facebook sent Max, a 24 year old with 234 friends, a CD contained 1,222 PDF pages of data. The CD included deleted private messages, deleted pokes, deleted relationships statuses, deleted friends, old chat conversations, and location data. The haul of data is summarised in a YouTube video.
Max is now campaigning to make Facebook more transparent and, via his website Europe Versus Facebook, informs Facebook users on how to get access to their data.
Stay in control of you details
You have the right to see the personal information that organisations hold about you. You also have the right to get information corrected or removed. The ICO has produced guidance on how to access your data.