Several Facebook users that were curious to learn what data Facebook has on them found that the company has been storing their videos long after they deleted them. Facebook users reported that every video they have ever filmed on Facebook was in their archive.
The news should not come as a surprise as Facebook is known for its data hoarding practices. Last week, a report showed that the Facebook app is secretly keeping a log of every phone call or SMS sent from and to an Android device.
The Facebook app starts collecting call and SMS metadata as soon as you give the app permission to access your contacts. The only piece of good news is that Facebook does not store the content of those calls or text messages. Facebook apologized for the inconvenience. but insisted that users had “opted in” to the feature that tracks their interactions.
Facebook Is Storing Your Videos Long After Deletion
However, call metadata is not the only thing Facebook is collecting without users’ consent. If you download your FB data archive, you’ll be amazed at the amount of data Facebook has on you. Facebook stores relationship statuses, contact lists, and even videos that you once deleted.
Before Facebook Live, the social media site enabled users to film videos via their phone cameras or web cams without leaving the platform. A preview of the videos was posted before the clip was made public. If the user didn’t like the video, he could discard it.
Surprisingly, the discarded videos were not deleted as the site saved them for some mysterious reason.
Some users reported finding more than 100 unused videos in their archive. Only a third of those clips were used, while the rest was discarded. The archive contains content that users never wanted to share with anyone which can be very disturbing.
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