Thread about how much data Facebook and Google have on you will freak you the hell out

Don't say we didn't warn you.
 By 
Rachel Thompson
 on 

Reader beware, this Twitter thread about your Facebook and Google data will give you quite the scare.

Dylan Curran, a technical consultant and web developer, shared some alarming findings about just how much information Facebook and Google store "without you even realising it."

His tweet, which will likely make you delve straight into your Google and Facebook settings, has been retweeted more than 200K times, and gained a shout-out from Edward Snowden.

According to Curran, Google keeps a record of your location every time you turn on your phone, and it keeps a timeline of everywhere you've been since you started using it.

Google even plots all your locations on a handy little map for you to see.

Thought that clearing your browsing history was enough? Think again. Curran says that Google stores "search history across all your devices on a separate database." "So even if you delete your search history and phone history, Google STILL stores everything until you go in and delete everything and you have to do this on all devices."

Curran says that Google also makes an advertisement profile based on your info, which can even include your "possible weight."

It also stores "information on every app and extension you use, how often you use them, where you use them, and who you use them to interact with," including who you talk to on Facebook.

"Google stores ALL of your YouTube history, so they know whether you're going to be a parent soon, if you're a conservative, if you're a progressive, if you're Jewish, Christian, or Muslim, if you're feeling depressed or suicidal, if you're anorexic," wrote Curran.

And if you wanted to download a copy of your Google data, then good luck to you. The file size equates to 3 million Word documents.

If you're not already freaked out enough, then just read this next bit about Facebook. You can also download a copy of your Facebook data via your Settings.

Facebook stores every message you've ever sent or been sent, in addition to all the contacts in your phone, and every audio message you've either sent or received.

Facebook saves what it thinks you "might be interested in" based on posts you've liked and "what you and your friends talk about."

Just like Google, Facebook stores every time you log in, "where you logged in from, what time, and from what device."

Facebook also logs "all the applications you've ever had connected to your Facebook account," which Curran says allows Facebook to gauge what you're interested in.

Curran's findings became even more alarming when he shared screenshots of the "Google Takeout document," which provides a breakdown of "all the different ways they get your information."

It's worth giving the 33-tweet-long thread a thorough read to gain a full picture of all the ways your data is being stored.

Curran makes an important point about the way we protect our data in the modern age.

"We would never let the government or a corporation put cameras/microphones in our homes or location trackers on us, but we just went ahead and did it ourselves because fuck it I want to watch cute dog videos," says Curran.

Don't say we didn't warn you.

Topics Facebook Google

Rachel Thompson, sits wearing a dress with yellow florals and black background.
Rachel Thompson
Features Editor

Rachel Thompson is the Features Editor at Mashable. Rachel's second non-fiction book The Love Fix: Reclaiming Intimacy in a Disconnected World is out now, published by Penguin Random House in Jan. 2025. The Love Fix explores why dating feels so hard right now, why we experience difficult emotions in the realm of love, and how we can change our dating culture for the better.

A leading sex and dating writer in the UK, Rachel has written for GQ, The Guardian, The Sunday Times Style, The Telegraph, Cosmopolitan, Glamour, Stylist, ELLE, The i Paper, Refinery29, and many more.

Rachel's first book Rough: How Violence Has Found Its Way Into the Bedroom And What We Can Do About It, a non-fiction investigation into sexual violence was published by Penguin Random House in 2021.

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