Al Capone's Virtual Vault

Scott Hardie | May 27, 2018
Has anybody else downloaded the information that Facebook or Google have on you, and if so, what did you think of it?

I've seen lots of this kind of article, making it sound how scary it is that Facebook and Google know so much about you. I expect media outlets to hype their content, so a few scare-mongering headlines are excusable, but the content of the articles didn't come anywhere close to my experience when I tried downloading my own data.

Facebook and Google know pretty much only what I've told them. Facebook knows my profile info, and my friendships, and every private conversation I've had in Messenger and private groups. Google knows every topic I've searched for and every video I've watched and every email I've sent and every place where I've used my phone to check a map. I expected all of these things. Both sites overemphasize certain things (I clicked one ad on Facebook about Monopoly and now it thinks i'm some kind of obsessive fan of the game, I guess because I click on so few ads and it has little else to go on), but neither site seemed to have psychic powers and know things that they shouldn't.

I'm just wondering if this experience is unique to me since I'm alert about what I share online, or if my experience is common and the articles are just overhyping the danger.

Samir Mehta | May 29, 2018
[hidden by request]

Scott Hardie | May 29, 2018
Ha, interesting. They had nothing like that on me. The closest it came was that Facebook had partnerships with advertisers who had data about me, and some of those advertisers were organizations that I had no interest in, like conservative political groups or assorted corporations whose products I never buy. It doesn't surprise or bother me that such groups have my data; I assume that list is only the tip of the iceberg.

Scott Hardie | May 29, 2018
I also have a bit of a different experience with traffic patterns. Whenever I use Google Maps on my phone while setting off to drive somewhere, I never fail to be annoyed that it automatically starts navigating to work (in the morning) or to home (in the evening) without asking me. Google, I do not need help navigating to my own job or my own house. I get it, the purpose is to get around traffic jams, but I'm only using the app to help me navigate to somewhere new that I haven't gone before, and its presumptuousness about where I'm going irritates me. I think it should differentiate between daily users (who want to avoid traffic on their commutes) and occasional users (who want help getting somewhere new).