Delete your Facebook history so it doesn't come back to haunt you by Kim Komando ~ High Tech House Calls

Sunday, July 27, 2014

Delete your Facebook history so it doesn't come back to haunt you by Kim Komando

6:05 PM High Tech House Calls, Expert Computer Consulting

Nothing you put up on Facebook goes away on its own. Your profile probably has photos and status updates in it from years ago that you don't even remember posting.

Unfortunately, some of these posts might be things that you wouldn't post today. Maybe you posted them with the wrong privacy settings and everyone can see them.

Read my step-by-step guide to lock down your Facebook profile privacy settings.

Either way, taking some time to look at and clean up your Facebook history is never a bad thing. Otherwise, old posts can come back to bite you in a job search, relationship, legal case or phishing scam.

Fortunately, Facebook makes it easy to review and clean up old posts.

The Activity Log

The Activity Log shows you everything you've ever done on Facebook. That's handy, but if you've been on Facebook for years be aware that this could take a while.

To get started, log in to Facebook. Then click the down arrow in the upper right corner and select Activity Log.

Facebook Activity Log

The Activity Log might seem a little overwhelming at first with thousands of entries to scroll through, but Facebook has a few tools to make things easier.

Facebook Activity Log Filters

In the left-hand column you'll see a huge list of filters. These show you just the posts in your Timeline about those topics.

For example, if you only want to look at things you've posted in the past, select "Your Posts." You can also just look at "Photos," things you've "Liked" and "Comments" you've made on posts, photos and videos.

Click the "More" link to see more filters like "Videos," "Groups" and "Location History." Location History is especially helpful if in the past you were a little too free with telling people where you were.

One thing you probably didn't know Facebook tracks is your search history. Everything you've searched for on Facebook is visible to anyone who gets access to your account.

To see your search history, click "More" under "Photos, Likes and Comments." Then click "Search" near the bottom of the list.

You can delete individual entries by clicking the "circle with a slash" icon and selecting Delete. You can also click "Clear Searches" at the top to wipe everything at once.

Of course, there's no way to turn off search history recording. So, you'll need to keep coming back to delete your history if you don't want it recorded - or just stop searching on Facebook.

At the very bottom, you can also see what apps you've installed and what posts they've made on your Timeline. At the top of the log, you can also changing the settings on who can see the posts the apps make.

Limit Past Posts

I mentioned earlier that you might have posted with the wrong privacy settings in the past. Changing every post manually from "Everyone" to "Friends" could take days.

Fortunately, Facebook has a quicker option.

At the top of the page, click the upside-down triangle and select Settings.

Facebook profile menu

Then click the Privacy link in the left-hand column. Under "Who can see my stuff?" click the "Limit Past Posts" link.

Facebook Privacy Settings

Then click the "Limit Old Posts" button to change the privacy setting of every post in your profile to "Friends." Note that if you have posts that you want everyone to see, this will change those as well.

Download your history

Your entire Facebook history is available in your account, but what if you want it offline? Yep, Facebook lets you download the whole thing.

In fact, it doesn't just include everything in your profile and activity log. The downloaded data includes ads you've clicked and their topics, the IP addresses of the gadgets you use to access Facebook, your entire Chat history, every email address you've every used on Facebook and more.

To download this information, open Facebook, click the upside-down triangle in the upper right corner and select Settings. On the first page, click the "Download a copy" link.

Facebook General settings

Then click the "Start My Archive" button.

Facebook Start My Archive

You'll need to re-enter your password and then click another Start My Archive button. When your information is ready for download, Facebook will send you an email with a link.

When you click the link you'll got to a page with a "Download Archive" button. Click it and then enter your password again. Then you can finally download the Zip file.

Open the Zip file by double-clicking on it, or if that doesn't work use a program like 7-Zip. Drag the file contents to your desktop or another folder, and then double-click the "index.htm" file.

Your information will appear in your browser so you can look through it. Just be aware that most of the extra information, like ad clicks and email addresses, can't be removed from Facebook if you don't want it in Facebook's records.

If you want it gone, you'll have to delete your account entirely. You can do that at this page: https://www.facebook.com/help/delete_account

Just think hard before you click "Delete Account" because it will be gone forever.

Why not sign up for my newsletter? We will never sell or sell your email address. Unsubscribe at any time by clicking the unsubscribe link at the bottom of the newsletter.