There are plenty of reasons to back up your Facebook data — maybe you want to archive, reuse, or save it — and it turns out that there's a simple way to do so. In fact, a few clicks and an app called Give Me My Data will do the trick in seconds.
Give Me My Data is a simple Facebook app with a single purpose — to help you back up your Facebook data so that you can do whatever you wish with it — and it does it well.
All you need to do is add the application, authorize it to access your information, and select how you want to receive your data — options include plain text, CSV, and XML formats — and ... that's it. Give Me My Data will proceed to spit out your details by category — personal information, status updates, links, pages, etc — and then you're free to do whatever you will with it.
It's worth noting that Facebook itself provides a way to download most of your data — the link to do so can be found in your account settings — but it doesn't provide the various formatting options nor the varying breakdowns of data.
Now I know that someone's shouting "Wait! Stop! I didn't read the first paragraph of this story, so I need to know: Why am I doing this again?" right now, but Give Me My Data already has that question covered:
Reasons could include making artwork, archiving and deleting your account, or circumventing the interface Facebook provides.
It's convenient to have a backed up copy of your information in case you decide to delete your Facebook account but want to hang on to some of the old details, to easily copy/paste it into another profile, or to have everything saved in case we all have to recreate our social networking profiles after the world ends and Facebook ceases to exist.
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Rosa Golijan writes about tech here and there. She's a bit obsessed with Twitter and loves to be liked on Facebook.