Do you know that Facebook has stored all phone numbers from your mobile device? Today I accidentally came across a huge list of phone numbers in my Profile while fine tuning my Privacy settings. I had no idea how this happened! According to Facebook Help, “The contacts listed here include the information you’ve imported or synced to Facebook…” I do not think that its true! Facebook does not make any effort in telling the users how they get access to our contacts on the mobile device. Moreover, Facebook makes it so damn difficult to find how to delete or even have access to this list!!! Facebook does not even ask the users whether we agree to let them store our phone numbers from the mobile device!
I just removed the entire phone numbers from my Profile. To check whether Facebook has stored phone numbers or you family and friends, do the following.
Note: While I’ve spent much time trying to figure out how to check and remove the phone numbers from my Facebook Profile, there may be other easier ways to do the same. If you know that, please share it here. And, if you think that there is no problem with Facebook storing phone numbers of your family and friends, including your innocent kids who may add random strangers on to their profile, please think again.
Step 1: Log in to your Facebook
Step 2: Click here to see the Facebook Help page regarding the contacts
Step 3: Click on the highlighted link in the image below
Step 4: You will see something like the following image when you follow Step 3. Click on the “imported contacts”, highlighted in the image below
You may also want to follow what they advice for iPhone users, to turn off Syncing. I could not find any such option on my phone though.
Once you follow the above steps, you will be able to see if Facebook has stored phone numbers from your mobile device. If it has, you can remove all numbers by clicking any of the two ways as highlighted in the image below. If you are following as highlighted in the second red color box, you need to first select “All” from the drop down menu and click “Delete Selected”
Once you delete, it may take few minutes before the numbers really disappear. Refresh after 5-10 minutes and you will see a screen as shown below;
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