Here’s how you download all of the information Facebook has about you

Private messages. Deleted friends. Political and religious views. It is all on here.

In light of recent events, a lot of folk have been feeling quite sceptical about their Facebook accounts. Over the weekend, Mark Zuckerberg took out series of full-page newspaper ads to apologise over his role in the data leak scandal involving Cambridge Analytica. There are five simple steps to getting the information:

1. Log on to Facebook
2. Go to Settings
3. Scroll to the bottom of General Account Settings, and click on ‘Download a copy of your Facebook data’
4. Put your personal e-mail address when prompted
5. Once the data has been collected, you'll be asked to put in your password

And from there, it is all there for you to read. The full list of downloadable information is actually quite staggering, especially if you have been a member of Facebook for a number of years. Just a small sample of available items to wade through include all of your private messages, all blocked/removed/deleted friends, all political and/or religious views, full information on all of your active sessions (where, when, and on what device), credit card details (if you have purchased anything via Facebook), phone numbers, Facial Recognition Data and IP address information.