Meta probably has your email and private phone number!
According to Business Insider, Meta quietly rolled out this tool sometime in May 2022, but the company didn't say anything about it. The link to the tool appears to be pretty much tucked away in an obscure page in Facebook's help section where no user typically ventures.
Below are steps to remove your contact number or email address from all of Meta's apps.
1. Visit the contact info removal tool page. https://www.facebook.com/contacts/removal
2. You can then choose from three options: your mobile number, landline phone number, or email address. You can only pick one, so to remove all the above info from Meta, you must repeat these steps for each option.
3. Enter your mobile number. The tool also asks where it wants you to look for your data: Facebook and Messenger, Instagram, or both. You can tick both.
4. If you picked mobile number, you'll receive an SMS from Facebook containing your confirmation code. If you picked landline phone number, you'll receive an automated voice call to that number to give you a confirmation code. If you picked "email address," the tool will email you the confirmation code.
5. Clicking "Next" takes you to a page that tells you Meta has found your number and that someone (if not you) has uploaded it to Meta's platforms. By clicking "Confirm", you tell Meta you want your mobile number deleted from its database and block the number from being re-uploaded.
Heather Burns, author of the book "Understanding Privacy", They collected data they should not have collected in the first place, and are now shifting responsibility on you to remove it," she told Insider.
Below are steps to remove your contact number or email address from all of Meta's apps.
1. Visit the contact info removal tool page. https://www.facebook.com/contacts/removal
2. You can then choose from three options: your mobile number, landline phone number, or email address. You can only pick one, so to remove all the above info from Meta, you must repeat these steps for each option.
3. Enter your mobile number. The tool also asks where it wants you to look for your data: Facebook and Messenger, Instagram, or both. You can tick both.
4. If you picked mobile number, you'll receive an SMS from Facebook containing your confirmation code. If you picked landline phone number, you'll receive an automated voice call to that number to give you a confirmation code. If you picked "email address," the tool will email you the confirmation code.
5. Clicking "Next" takes you to a page that tells you Meta has found your number and that someone (if not you) has uploaded it to Meta's platforms. By clicking "Confirm", you tell Meta you want your mobile number deleted from its database and block the number from being re-uploaded.
Heather Burns, author of the book "Understanding Privacy", They collected data they should not have collected in the first place, and are now shifting responsibility on you to remove it," she told Insider.
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