I put all my personal Facebook data on eBay
And almost made lots of money
Everyone else was making money off it, so why shouldn’t I?
So I downloaded my data with Facebook’s own export tool, and put it on eBay.
Bidding started at £0.99.
I said you could sell it to advertisers or whatever you want.
What was Included
- Every like, post, and inane comment since I was 16.
- Photos dating back to when I had a fringe and listened to Billy Talent.
- Videos dating back to when my band played gigs at kids play centres.
- A list of things I’m apparently interested in, including ‘Gluten-free diet’, ‘Jessie Ware’ and ‘Project management software’.
- Stats on how many happy birthdays I got, year by year.
- All my friend requests that got ignored.
- Every party invite I’ve ever had (all three of them).
- Loads more, like who I vote for, my boss’s name, and where all my family live.
What wasn’t Included
- Permission to steal my identity and open a sweat shop.
Within a day, the listing had 44 bids.
But as soon as the story made headlines, eBay removed the listing.
They said it might go against Facebook’s Terms and Conditions.
My mistake, I was under the impression I owned my personal data.
Luckily, you can now buy an excerpt of my personal data when you join my Patreon.
