facebook – addshore

Browser extension to clear your Facebook advert interests

July 8, 2020May 26, 2020 by addshore

At the end of 2018, I wrote a blog post that included some JavaScript code to quickly remove all of your Facebook advert interests from this settings page. This has started to become one of my more popular posts and so I decided to take another pass at the project and convert the code into a browser extension.

The new extension provides the user with an extra button on the ad interests page that will automatically go through and click all of the remove buttons for all of the interest tabs that appear on the top bar. The UI isn’t the best, but it is functional!

Add Exif data back to Facebook images – 0.10

May 17, 2020April 5, 2020 by addshore

*Screenshot of the Facebook Exif tool* version 0.10

In 2019 I wrote a post introducing a tool that I created to add Exif data back to images downloaded as part of a Facebook information download. The tool allowed me to download and delete my uploaded Facebook images while keeping some of the useful data such as date taken. After some Twitter pressure I have finally released an updated and slightly fixed version, and it’s time that I wrote a updated guide to go with it!

What is Exif data?

Exchangeable image file format (officially Exif) is a standard that specifies the formats for images and tags used by digital cameras and other systems handling image files.
Snipped from WIkipedia

Common Exif data for an image includes the time that it was taken, the camera make and model and the coordinate data for the location of the image.

Add Exif data back to Facebook images – 0.1

May 17, 2020February 10, 2019 by addshore

EDIT: Version 0.10 was released in April 2020 https://addshore.com/2020/04/add-exif-data-back-to-facebook-images-0-10/

In 2016 I wrote a blog post with this exact title when moving all of my pictures from Facebook to Google photos. I wrote a hacky little script which met my needs and added exif data from a HTML Facebook data dump back to the images that came along with it.

A few months ago I took another look at the script and made it slightly easier to run, but it still fell short on the usability side of things.

Since then more and more people have and been commenting and messaging me wanting to do exactly the same thing, and so I finally made a more usable version of my little tool.

Quickly clearing out your Facebook advert ‘interests’

May 27, 2020October 4, 2018 by addshore

2020 EDIT: This solution is now packaged up as a nice browser extension. Click here to read the new post for details and links to the browser extension.

Over the past years, Facebook have had a few privacy related issues. First came the ‘scandal’ with Cambridge Analytica and more recently a bug (or series of bugs) that apparently affected 50 million accounts allowing peoples access tokens to be stolen. Oh, and there was also the story about Facebook using your 2 factor authentication phone number for targeting advertising.

With all of the goings on recently, as well as the new GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) in the EU, Facebook have attempted to make the data that they have about an individual easier to see, understand and edit or remove. One such section of this data covers your “ad preferences“.

Cambridge Analytica, #DeleteFacebook, and adding EXIF data back to your photos

May 17, 2020March 20, 2018 by addshore

2019 Update: This script now exists with an easy to use GUI

Back in 2016 I wrote a short hacky script for taking HTML from facebook data downloads and adding any data possible back to the image files that also came with the download. I created this as I wanted to grab all of my photos from Facebook and be able to upload them to Google Photos and have Google automatically slot them into the correct place in the timeline. Recent news articles about Cambridge Analytica and harvesting of Facebook data have lead to many people deciding the leave the platform, so I decided to check back with my previous script and see if it still worked, and make it a little easier to use.

Add Exif data back to Facebook images

August 10, 2019September 4, 2016 by addshore

2019 Update: This script now exists with an easy to use GUI 2018 Update: I touched this script again in March 2019 moving it to Github and updating it with Docker support I start this post not by talking about Facebook, but about Google Photos. Google now offers unlimited ‘high resolution’ images within its service where … Read more