Irishman Reveals Shocking Amount of Data Facebook and Google Keep on You
Data Consultant and Web Developer Dylan Curran's exposé on the level of information that both Facebook and Google have on social media users is about to give you a scare.
Irish Central, 5 Apr 2018
You'll be surprised about the amount of data Google and Facebook keep.iStock
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On a mission to spread "technical awareness and improve digital etiquette", Curran has published the results of his extensive research in The Guardian.
In the first revelation that will, to quote Curran, "freak you out", he makes a point that Google knows where you've been.
"Google stores your location (if you have location tracking turned on) every time you turn on your phone. You can see a timeline of where you’ve been from the very first day you started using Google on your phone," Waterford native Curran warns.
He points out to readers that they can click on this link to see your own data: google.com/maps/timeline?…
That's not even the scary part. Curran mentions that Google knows everything you've ever searched for even if you've deleted it, it knows all the apps you use, it has all of your YouTube history, and - gulp - Google even has built an ad profile based on your data.
Give this a minute to sink in: the data that Google has thus far stored on you could fill millions of Word Documents.
Curran notes that his own history is 5.5GB big - roughly three million Word Docs. Your own can be accessed here.
Google is not the only culprit, either. Facebook has made headlines recently over questionable use of user's personal data.
"Facebook offers a similar option to download all your information. Mine was roughly 600MB, which is roughly 400,000 Word documents," Curran writes.
And what is this data you might ask? According to Curran, it's "every message you’ve ever sent or been sent, every file you’ve ever sent or been sent, all the contacts in your phone, and all the audio messages you’ve ever sent or been sent."
To read his piece on The Guardian in full, see here.
You can also read Curran's interviews with CBC here and News.com.au here.
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