Appendix 2: Data collected and shared between Facebook and other platforms
Facebook data apps can access
15.By implementing the Facebook login feature in a game or app, developers can access the following Facebook user data, as standard:345
- Name
- Profile photo
- Birthday
- All photos—including photos where the user is tagged—requires FB prior approval
- Likes—all the pages a user has liked
- Posts—all the posts a user has made, has been tagged in, or have been placed on their wall—requires FB prior approval
- Places—all places a person has been tagged at in photos, videos, statuses and links—requires FB prior approval
- Videos—all videos a person has posted or been tagged in—requires FB prior approval
- Email address
- Age range
- Events a user has hosted or RSVP’d—requires FB prior approval
- Friends who also use the app—requires FB prior approval
- Gender
- Hometown
- Current city
- User ID
Data Facebook can collect from apps
16.The Facebook SDK also allows app and game makers to send data to Facebook, in exchange for data from Facebook, and the ability to offer users a streamlined login experience using their Facebook ID.346 The following is an indicative list of the data that can be sent to Facebook via the SDK. Most of these items are called events. The data from these events includes:347
- Achievement level—the achievement of specific levels defined within an application, business or organisation
- Activate App—every time a user starts the app
- In-App Ad Click—every time a user clicks an ad
- In-App Ad Impression—every time a user sees an ad
- Add Payment Info—when a customer adds payment info at a checkout
- Add to Cart—the addition of an item to a shopping cart or basket
- Add to Wishlist—the addition of items to a wish list
- Complete Registration—a submission of information by a customer in exchange for a service provided by your business
- Complete Tutorial—a completion of a tutorial in an app
- Contact—a record of any contact through the app
- Customize Product—whenever a user customises a product in an app
- Donate—the donation of funds through an app
- Find Location—when a person finds a business location via web or app, with an intention to visit
- Initiate Checkout—the start of any checkout process
- Log Purchase—the completion of a purchase
- Rating Given—whenever a user rates something in an app
- Appointment Booking—the booking of any appointment in an app
- Searched—the completion of any search
- Spent Credits—the completion of a transaction where people spend credits specific to your business or application, such as in-app currency
- Start Trial—the start of a free trial of a product or service you offer, such as a trial subscription
- Submit Application—the submission of an application for a product, service or program, such as a credit card, educational program or job
- Subscription—the start of a paid subscription for a product or service
- Unlock Achievement—the completion of specific activities or actions the app rewards. For example, refer a friend, complete your profile, etc.
- View Content—any visit to a content page, such as a product page, landing page or article. Information about the page viewed can be passed to Facebook for use in dynamic ads
Sign In with Apple
17.Apple recently announced ‘Sign In with Apple’, a new alternative to signing in with Facebook, Google, Twitter and other social media networks, scheduled to roll out before the end of the year. ‘Sign In with Apple’ will let users sign in to apps and websites using their Apple ID, and will place an emphasis on user privacy. Apple CEO Tim Cook said:
We focus on the user, and the user wants the ability to go across numerous properties on the web without being under surveillance. We’re moving privacy protections forward.348
New app guidelines provided to developers suggest ‘Sign In with Apple’ will be a mandatory feature for all apps offering third party (non-email based) sign in. The feature also lets users create a randomly-generated email address to cloak their real email address from developers.349
Facebook data
18.Facebook’s GraphAPI—the programming language for Facebook’s ‘social graph’—allows for storage of several categories of user data.350 These are collected in the following list. This is a comprehensive list, but updates are regular and should be expected:351
Data fields in the GraphAPI
- Address
- Age range
- ID
- Birthday
- IOS or Android
- Employee number—used in Facebook Workplace
- Favorite athletes
- Favorite teams
- Full name
- Gender
- Hometown
- Inspirational people
- Languages the person knows
- Location, as entered by the user on their profile
- Meeting for—what the person is interested in meeting for
- Favourite quotes
- Significant other
- Sports played by the person
- Timezone
“Edge” fields in the GraphAPI
- Accounts—pages the user has a role on.
- ad_studies—ad studies that the user can view.
- Adaccounts—the advertising accounts the user can access.
- assigned_ad_accounts—ad accounts that are assigned to this business scoped user
- assigned_pages—pages that are assigned to this business scoped user
- Albums—the photo albums this person has created
- Apprequestformerrecipients—app requests
- Apprequests—this person’s pending requests from an app
- assigned_product_catalogs—product catalogs that are assigned to this business scoped user
- Books—the books listed on this person’s profile
- business_users—business users corresponding to the user
- Businesses—businesses associated with the user
- Events—returns the events on a user.
- Family—this person’s family relationships
- Friends—a person’s friends
- Games—games this person likes
- Groups—the Facebook Groups for which the person has given any group level permission
- ids_for_apps—businesses can claim ownership of multiple apps using Business Manager. This edge returns the list of IDs that this user has in any of those other apps
- ids_for_business—businesses can claim ownership of multiple apps using Business Manager. This edge returns the list of IDs that this user has in any of those other apps
- ids_for_pages—businesses can claim ownership of apps and pages using Business Manager. This edge returns the list of IDs that this user has in any of the pages owned by this business
- Likes—all the Pages this person has liked
- live_encoders—live encoders owned by this person
- live_videos—live videos from this person
- Movies—movies this person likes
- Music—music this person likes
- Permissions—the permissions that the person has granted this app
- personal_ad_accounts—the advertising accounts to which this person has personal access
- Photos—photos the person is tagged in or has uploaded
- Picture—the person’s profile picture
- promotable_domains—all the domains user can promote
- promotable_events—all the events which user can promote
- request_history—Developers’ Graph API request history
- taggable_friends—friends that can be tagged in content published via the Graph API
- Television—TV shows this person likes
- Threads—a message conversation thread
- Videos—videos the person is tagged in or uploaded
- Checkins—the checkins this person has made
- Feed—the feed of posts (including status updates) and links published by this person
- Friendrequests—a person’s pending friend requests
- Home—a person’s Facebook homepage feed
- Notifications—the unread Facebook notifications that a person has
- Outbox—a person’s Facebook Messages outbox
- Questions—the questions that a person has created
- Scores—the scores this person has received from Facebook Games that they’ve played
- Subscribers—the profiles that are following this person
- Subscribedto—the profile that this person is following
345 Facebook for Developers, “Facebook login”, accessed 27 August 2019
346 The Facebook SDK is a set of definitions, protocols and tools for delivering user experience and creating features within Facebook.
348 “CBS Evening News”, CBS, June 2019
349 Apple Developer, “Sign In with Apple”, accessed 27 August 2019
350 The term ‘social graph’ was popularised at the 2007 Facebook F8 conference, and referred to the virtual graph representing social relationships between entities on Facebook. ‘API’ stands for Application Programming Interface, and is a set of definitions, protocols and tools for building software. The GraphAPI defines a language set for third-party developers to allow them to connect their software with Facebook, and exchange data.
Published: 12 September 2019