What is Shadow Profile on Facebook?

Everyone knows that Facebook collects personal data, but the shadow profile is one of the more intrusive methods that the social network uses.

In short, a shadow profile means that even if you never use Facebook, this site may have information about you.

So, to help you maintain your privacy, in this article, TipsMake.com will explain what Facebook shadow profiles are and what you can do about them.

What is the Shadow profile on Facebook?

The shadow profile is not something you created yourself. Instead, Facebook creates a shadow profile without your knowledge or consent.

Suppose you do not have a Facebook account. However, one of your friends has created an account on this social network. Facebook offers them a special service where they can import contacts to find friends already on the service.

That friend thought this was a great idea, so they entered the contact list into Facebook. Facebook can then look through the contact details and let that person know any friends who have created an account.

However, while scanning the list, Facebook will find contact information for people who have never signed up, including you. Ideally, Facebook will understand that you have not registered an account and will not touch that information.

Instead, Facebook will create a shadow profile, allowing it to store your personal data. This happens without your consent.

Thus, even if you claim never to use Facebook, the service can still know your name and contact details. If you have friends who use and import contacts to Facebook, you can never be sure that Facebook doesn't have your information.

While Facebook allows you to download the data it has about you, this is only possible at the moment, if you have a Facebook account. As such, you need to give up more personal information to view your profile, and that's not an ideal tradeoff.

How do I know if Facebook has created a shadow profile?

Unfortunately, Facebook's shadow profile is not just a rumor or conspiracy theory. It came to light after Facebook discovered a communication leak during 2013.

Leaks often reveal details about registered users who are willing to provide information to the site. However, this Facebook leak has revealed information about people who have never signed up to the site. This proves the existence of a shadow profile.

Why does Facebook create shadow profiles?

So, why does Facebook create and store a shadow profile of people who are not interested in using Facebook?

If you ask someone from Facebook, they will say that the shadow profile is essential to the 'People You May Know' feature . This is where Facebook introduces friends you may know, now have accounts on the site.

The idea is that if both friend A and friend B create a Facebook profile before you, Facebook can know who is in your circle of friends. For example, this social network might see that you appear in both your A friend's friend's and your B's friends' lists.

This gives Facebook the ability to connect you with people you know, when you first sign up. This is why Facebook needs shadow profiles to achieve this.

If you ask anyone else why Facebook collects this data, you'll probably get a more outrageous answer: In modern times, hoarding information about people can be very beneficial.

When people give Facebook data for free, the service does everything it can to ensure it gets as much value from the data as possible. Facebook even goes so far as to retain information after you delete your account.

What can you do with a shadow profile?

Unfortunately, you do not have direct control over the shadow profiles on Facebook. Whenever a Facebook user, save you in your contact list on your phone, log in to Facebook, your information will be added to the shadow profile.

You can ask your friends to delete the contacts they have uploaded to Facebook, by visiting the Manage Contacts page on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/mobile/facebook/contacts/?tab=contacts

Of course, they will have to turn off the sync settings afterwards.

Unfortunately, this is very unrealistic. You will have to ask everyone you know, see who has your contact details and are using Facebook to do this. If a friend doesn't comply, they will still upload your data to Facebook.

As such, the best way for you to protect yourself from being crawled is to give your friends some details, such as email and phone numbers, that are okay, and keep Keep your personal information private.

That's the only real way you can stop Facebook from collecting data about you. When a friend adds you to your contacts and syncs with Facebook, your shadow profile is created. As such, the only way to prevent this is to create a new, private email address. Then, only allow close friends and family without Facebook to contact you.

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