You're not on Facebook and yet Meta has your phone number?

Instagram and Facebook have your contact details, even though you consistently avoid the platforms. Can this be? And if so, how can you delete your data? With a new tool it can be done in two minutes; we'll show you how.

How do my phone number and email address get on a platform that I don't use?

It is possible that the parent company Meta, which operates the social networks Facebook and Instagram, among others, has certain contact details for you. The reason for this is that when other people register with Facebook, Instagram or Messenger, the services ask if people want to upload their address books. This is so that the group can check whether the contacts already contain people who have an account on the respective platform. This means that accounts of your own contacts can be easily found on the respective social network.

However, during the process described, certain contact details are also passed on to the parent company Meta and stored. Because someone uploads their contact list, some contact details are also saved for those people who are not logged in to the platform.

Meta also processes this data “if you are not a user of Facebook, Messenger or Instagram and/or do not have an account with us (a “non-user”),” it says on the corresponding page on Facebook (help area ).

New tool provides a solution

There is now a tool (i.e. a kind of supporting utility program) with which anyone can check whether their own email address, telephone number or similar has already been registered in Meta's database. At the same time, it is relatively easy to ensure that the contact details are deleted and that third parties cannot upload them to the network again.

Unfortunately, the link behind which the practical tool is hidden is anything but obvious. On Facebook, for example, the link to the tool behind the following sentence: “Click here if you have a question about the rights you may be entitled to”.

How to delete your phone number and email address

However, once you have found the tool's page, your saved data can be deleted within a few minutes:

Step 1: Select which category of contact information to search for (mobile number, landline number, or email address).

Step 2: Enter the email address or phone number (with correct area code) to search for and choose where you want Meta to search.
It's best to select both "Facebook and Messenger" and "Instagram".

Step 3: Next, the company has to verify your data, i.e. check whether it really belongs to you. You will either receive an SMS on your cell phone, a call on your landline phone or an email with a confirmation code that must be entered on the website.

Step 4: If you then click on “Next”, it may be displayed that the data exists in the network. Then all you have to do is confirm with one click that the data should be deleted and no longer used in the future.

Until now, (non-) users could also find out what other personal data Facebook has stored submitting a request for information in accordance with Article 15 of the General Data Protection Regulation “With the right to information, Article 15 of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) guarantees you a significant right as a data subject. “As a data subject, you can then request information from the person responsible for data processing about what data about you is stored or processed there,” it says on the BfDI website.

And what about WhatsApp ?

The messenger WhatsApp also belongs to the meta. This also collects contact details. To date, there is (still) no comparable option from the Meta Group to have contact data collected via WhatsApp deleted.

Thanks to the new function, which other social media do not yet offer, it is now much easier for Meta to delete unnecessary data from its database.

Author: Nick L.

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