One surprise: Barbara Boxer uploaded a contact list to Facebook with my info in it...although they've never sent me an email, and I've never given my email to them.
Turns out that several hundred different advertisers uploaded a contact list with my info. I assume they do that because then they get access to the other advertisers who have me in their list. Or, I suppose Facebook could have just paid them for that "offline" data. But many of the "advertisers" were politicial candidates (from both parties), so I suspect they are doing it for the information they receive back from Facebook about me.
Out of the first 40 listed, I thought maybe 9 of them could have come from me personally...maybe. The rest must have bought an email list from one of the ones to which I actually provided information.
I saw two local politicians names, one Dem and one GOP, but most personal names I didn't recognize turned out to be politicians around the country, often in areas I've never lived....a county commissioner in Oregon, a South Carolina "prosperity" PAC, an Illinois attorney general candidate, a New Jersey state legislator...the list goes on and on.
I was a little worried when I saw that "El Chapo" had my contact info...but then I saw that "Black Mirror" did as well, and a bunch of other Netflix TV shows...none of which I've watched, but maybe my kids have. Apparently, each show gets a contact list at Netflix.
Apparently I have only clicked on one ad while on Facebook. That probably helped to keep my data limited somewhat. Also, I have a separate browser that I only use for Facebook, so it can't track me before I go to the site or after I leave it. Also, I don't put the Facebook app on my phone. I shudder to think what my wife's Facebook data will look like.
Check out the video/article at the link.
Link: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/11/technology/personaltech/i-downloaded-the-information-that-facebook-has-on-me-yikes.html