How to Save Facebook Messages & Chats

To my research, this is the only way to do it, and it’s not elegant.

You can’t pick and choose what chats or messages you want, you must download your entire Facebook account, to get the messages. Really, the whole thing – all photos and videos, all wall posts, all.

First, you’ll need access to the Facebook account, and the email attached to it.

1 – under the gear icon > account settings

2 – bottom of that screen > click Download

You’ll be taken to a page with a green button, “Start my Archive”, click it.

Some time after, you’ll receive an email from Facebook, “your archive is ready”. This link will only work for a few days, for security reasons.

Most Importantly!

This file may contain sensitive and private information, such as: your current address or any past addresses, your cell number, including verified cell numbers you’ve added for security purposes; a credit card; Hidden Wall posts; Deleted and Removed friends; Hidden from News Feed; IP Addresses… this is a valuable file.

Download the file.  It’ll be a .zip, open it up*, and here’s the path to the messages.

The messages are output into one, unformatted, mega HTML page. I know.

Open it in a browser window, and start scrolling.  Copy paste save.

After downloading – delete the email containing the link. Be mindful where you store or send this file, and don’t upload it anywhere.

 

 

Don’t Want it Public? Don’t Post It

Above is me deleting a photo from my Picasa Google + photo account. See the asterisk?

“It may take 24 hours for this photo to be deleted”

And that’s Google; they have more servers than anyone. A smaller site might take longer. Plus, 24 hours in internet time is forEVER.

During that time, the photo could be crawled by bots, screen-capped, something like this could happen:

Years ago, my ‘Following on Twitter’ list backed up to my Blackberry, photos included. 

What if your profile pic is online for that brief moment, where someone somewhere, backs up?

Maybe you’re thinking: a 2 KB photo is too small to matter.

It is small, but it’s enough.

If you’re on Twitter in Toronto (and beyond), I bet you could identify everyone above, with that 2 KB.

Edit Photos Before You Upload

I always blur out licence plates, often faces, you’ve never seen a kid here; I err on the side of caution.

You may not notice the information you’re giving away in a photo. Often it’s something in the background that sinks you.

I use an offline editor (like Photoshop) to edit before uploading.

If I’m using an online editor, like Picasa, I assume the file I’m altering is also available in its original form on some server, somewhere.  Whether or not I post that photo, doesn’t matter, it still exists.

When editing, take the time to smudge and obscure, using many strokes of the mouse.

And absolutely do not use the swirl effect; all you have to do is reverse it, and look:

 (photo via Wikipedia)

Interpol used this exact technique to locate and arrest a child molester , “Mr Swirl”, back in 2007.

I remember being in a room full of people when that came across the TV, and I said, “oh he used the Photoshop swirl to hide his face, reverse it”.  Then the news story continued, and people looked at me like I was a wizard (easy crowd, totally milked it).