14 DAY TRIAL // Facebook has just unveiled the brand-new Groups feature which promises to change the way most people use the social network. But it also introduced a crucial new feature for those seeking for more openness from the social network, the possibility to export and download much of the data you've added to Facebook.
"[W]e've built an easy way to quickly download to your computer everything you've ever posted on Facebook and all your correspondences with friends: your messages, Wall posts, photos, status updates and profile information," Mark Zuckerberg, CEO and cofounder of Facebook, announced.
"If you want a copy of the information you've put on Facebook for any reason, you can click a link and easily get a copy of all of it in a single download," he said.
"To protect your information, this feature is only available after confirming your password and answering appropriate security questions. We'll begin rolling out this feature to people later today, and you'll find it under your account settings," he added.
This has been one of the most requested feature from privacy and advocacy groups but also from individuals.
You'll be able to get all of the content you've uploaded to Facebook as well as all of the messages, posts and so on in a single archived file. You will also be able to get a list of your friend's names, but, crucially, there will be no contact data, like email addresses, included.
This is a good privacy measure as it protects the contact data of your friends which they may not want to share with other sites or services. However, it also makes it harder to move to another service since there would be no way of contacting those users or ensuring that your friends come with you. Just their names is not information enough.