Does Facebook Have Your Phone Number? Here’s How To Find Out

Everyone knows that Facebook collects vast amounts of data. But what many people might not realise is, Facebook could have your phone number and email address—even if you never handed them over to the social network.

Facebook has collected these details over the years when your friends shared their address books with the social network, also handing over your information.

Now for the good news—Facebook has quietly rolled out a tool that allows you to check if the social network has your phone number and if so, you can delete it. The new Facebook tool has rolled out “quietly” as it’s been available since May this year and Meta hasn’t announced it publicly, according to Business Insider, which first reported the story.

How to find out if Facebook has your number

So now for the important part—how do you use the new Facebook contacts removal tool? First, you need to click through to the correct page. There you can confirm which contact you want it to look for, such as email address or phone number.

You’ll need to enter your details including area code, and then you can specify where you want the search to take place, for example Facebook and Messenger and Instagram. Facebook will send you a one-time SMS code to enter to confirm it’s you.

If Facebook finds the number—it did identify mine–it will ask: “Should we delete and block it?”

If you confirm, Facebook will also block it from being uploaded again. Handy.

The ability to remove private data such as phone number and email is “extremely valuable,” says Jake Moore, global cybersecurity advisor at ESET. However, he says, “it is a shame it has been implemented so quietly.”

Contact information such as phone numbers is often crawled by bots and placed in data sets which can be found on the dark web or illicit forums, Moore says. “It can then be used for further cyber-criminal activity such as identity theft or targeted phishing.”

The new Facebook tool is certainly useful, and easy to use once you’ve found it. If you’re still using the social network, why not give it a try?