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On your second point, here's incomplete list of data that facebook stores about its users. Note that they keep all wall posts, messages, tags, and photos even after the user deletes it from his profile

http://europe-v-facebook.org/EN/Data_Pool/data_pool.html

Of course, they won't have any of your data if you don't have an account, which might be what you're trying to get at.



> Of course, they won't have any of your data if you don't have an account

Facebook can indeed. Your name even without an account can be tagged into photos and status updates by other users. Those photos contain location data. And of course the accounts of other users in the same photo as you contain a wealth of data about their locations and interests and one-degree-further friends, statistically speaking much of which will also apply to you.

Whether Facebook has the ability to automatically aggregate such sparse data into something useful is an open question, but the data does exist. Unless you somehow never let yourself get photographed or mentioned by anybody else who does use Facebook.


Facebook's data is extensive, but nothing at all like what the NSA collects. I responded in detail here: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4260143

Of course, they won't have any of your data if you don't have an account, which might be what you're trying to get at.

It wasn't my point, but is valid too.




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