Unsettling Twitter Thread Illustrates Just How Much Info Big Tech Companies Own About Us

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Meeeeesh
Jul 2, 2020 12:00 PM EDT

We're all aware that big tech corporations store an insane amount of information about us, but it's probably safe to say that most of us weren't aware of the sheer vastness of it all (think literal millions of pages per person). Dylan Curran, Director of Technology at VFT Solutions, took it upon himself to investigate the amount of information that Google and Facebook have about him, and let's just say...what he found is unsettling to say the least.

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  • 01
    Text - Dylan Curran @iamdylancurran Want to freak yourself out? Il'm gonna show just how much of your information the likes of Facebook and Google store about you without you even realising it 8:27 PM Mar 24, 2018 64,587 Retweets 93,987 Likes
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  • 02
    Text - Dylan Curran @iamdylancurran 1. google.com/maps/timeline?..O Google stores your location (if you have it turned on) every time you turn on your phone, and you can see a timeline from the first day you started using Google on your phone
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  • 03
    Text - Dylan Curran @iamdylancurran 2. This is every place I have been in the last twelve months in Ireland, going in so far as the time of day I was in the location and how long it took me to get to that location from my previous one Gla Timeline NORTHERN IRELAND bree iste ot Mai ww Ireland Limpris De ALE
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  • 04
    Text - Dylan Curran @iamdylancurran 3. myactivity.google.com/myactivit y 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 8:32 PM · Mar 24, 2018 904 Retweets 2,842 Likes
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  • 05
    Text - Dylan Curran @iamdylancurran 4. google.com/settings/ads/ Google creates an advertisement profile based on your information, including your location, gender, age, hobbies, career, interests, relationship status, possible weight (need to lose 10lbs in one day?) and income 8:34 PM · Mar 24, 2018 700 Retweets 2,046 Likes
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  • 06
    Text - Dylan Curran @iamdylancurran 5. Google 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 (who do you talk to on facebook, what countries are you speaking with, what time you go to sleep at) security.google.com/settings/se cur... 8:36 PM · Mar 24, 2018 626 Retweets 1,685 Likes
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  • 07
    Text - Dylan Curran @iamdylancurran 6. youtube.com/feed/history/s... 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 anorexc... 8:38 PM · Mar 24, 2018 706 Retweets 1,993 Likes
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  • 08
    Text - Dylan Curran @iamdylancurran 7. Google offers an option to download all of the data it stores about you, I've requested to download it and the file is 5.5GB BIG, which is roughly 3 MILLION Word documents google.com/takeout 8:40 PM · Mar 24, 2018 1,295 Retweets 3,600 Likes
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  • 09
    Text - Dylan Curran @iamdylancurran 8. google.com/takeout This link includes your bookmarks, emails, contacts, your Google Drive files, all of the above information, your YouTube videos, the photos you've taken on your phone, the businesses you've bought from, the products you've bought through Google... 8:42 PM · Mar 24, 2018 642 Retweets 1,815 Likes
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  • 10
    Text - Dylan Curran @iamdylancurran 9. Your calendar, your Google hangout sessions, your location history, the music you listen to, the Google books you've purchased, the Google groups you're in, the websites you've created, the phones you've owned, the pages you've shared, how many steps you walk in a day... 8:44 PM · Mar 24, 2018 486 Retweets 1,266 Likes
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  • 11
    Text - Dylan Curran @iamdylancurran 10. Facebook offers a similar option to download all your information, mine was roughly 600mb, which is roughly 400,000 Word documents 8:49 PM Mar 24, 2018 560 Retweets 1,339 Likes
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  • 12
    Text - Dylan Curran @iamdylancurran 11. This includes every message you've ever sent or been sent, every file you've ever sent or been sent, all the contacts in your phone, and all the audio messages you've ever sent or been sent e Jon JEWELLY ata Can Saore Care De Tu ES >
    via iamdylancurran
  • 13
    Text - Dylan Curran @iamdylancurran 12. Facebook also stores what it think you might be interested in based off the things you've liked and what you and your friends talk about (I apparently like the topic 'Girl') Frozen yogurt Agriculture Republic of Ireland Computers Visual arts Ireland Tommy Tiernan Mark Zuckerberg Everything (band) Multimedia Girl Educational psychology Gratitude Computer programming I Can Has Cheezburger? Fastlane (TV series) >
    via iamdylancurran
  • 14
    Text - Dylan Curran @iamdylancurran 13. Somewhat pointlessly, they also store all the stickers you've ever sent on Facebook (I have no idea why they do this, it's just a joke at this stage) Picture Tools stcken Fe Home Share View Manage « Local Disk (C) Users Cemputer Downloads facebook-dylancurranfam messages stickers Search stickers * Quick access | Desktop Downloads A Documents 126361874215276 126361900881940 126361920081938 126361967540600 126361974215266 126361994215264 126162007548596 1263
    via iamdylancurran
  • 15
    Text - Dylan Curran @iamdylancurran 14. They also store every time you log into Facebook, where you logged in from, what time, and from what device D Dylan Curran - Security x file///C/Users/Computer/Downloads/facebook-dylancurranfam/html/security.htm Cookie.. Checkpoint completed Created Thursday, 3 Decemiber 2015 at 1203 UTC Updated Wedneaday, 31 December 1969 at 23 00 UTC-01 P Address 109 7737 244 Cookie Checkpoint completed Created. Wednesday, 2 December 2015 at 09:49 UTC Updated. Wednesday,
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