Facebook has your phone number even though you didn’t give it to them? Here’s how to remove it

Bad news, Meta (Facebook) probably has your phone number…

However, there is an official tool to request its removal!

Your Facebook phone number? No way

It’s a fact, the GAFAM have a ton of personal information about us. Information that the user generally gives voluntarily to Google, Apple or even Facebook, in particular with regard to his name, first name, email address, locality, etc.

However, and even if you take care to communicate as little information as possible to the terrible GAFAM, it is very likely that Meta (Facebook) has your telephone number in its possession. Indeed, whether you are a Facebook user yourself or not, any friend who has shared their address book with Meta has also shared your contact details.

How to remove your phone number from Facebook (and Messenger and Instagram)

Good news, however, there is an official tool that allows everyone to check if Meta has various information about them. A tool that not only allows you to find your phone number or email in the Meta database, but also to delete it!

According Business Insider, the tool in question has been available since last May, although Meta does not seem to have said anything publicly about it. The link pointing to it is also (discreetly) offered at the bottom of a long note called ” Information for people who do not use Meta products “.

The tool in question (accessible in source) thus allows any Internet user, whether a user of Meta products or not, to know whether their mobile phone number, email or landline number are present. in the social network database.

The tool then quickly takes care of indicating the information stored at Meta, and asks the user whether or not he wishes to delete it. The group also promises that all deleted data can no longer be imported. a posteriori.

Nevertheless, according to Eerke Boiten, cybersecurity expert at De Montfort University, it is entirely possible that Facebook will not technically delete your personal data despite everything. “ They collected data they shouldn’t have collected in the first place, and now blame you for deleting it “, explains the latter, indicating that the program could simply register the fact that the user does not wish to see his information being used, without deleting them.

And you, is your personal information stored at Meta “without your knowledge of your own free will”?

Sources: Business Insider, Facebook