Oh joy, Facebook is giving you more access to your own data

Facebook added more categories to its “Download Your Information” feature Thursday, which the social network touts as an important part of protecting your own privacy.

Now you’re able to access and download more data than just messages and photos. You’ll be able to access IP addresses you’ve logged in from, friend requests you’ve made (whether they’ve accepted or not), as well as any previous names you may have used in the past.

Download Your Information was first introduced in 2010 as a way for users to download and all the data they’d loaded into Facebook (which is helpful for anyone trying to quit Facebook), similar to Google’s Data Liberation Front. But what Facebook actually allowed you to download was limited to photos, your entire profile (including contact information, interests, quotes), your wall, videos, friends list, notes, events you RSVP’d to, sent and received messages, and comments you and your friends have made on your wall.

Even after Thursday’s new additions, the data you can download from Facebook still isn’t comprehensive. For example, you can’t see the photos that others have added with you in them or comments you’ve made on other people’s posts. Facebook still needs to iron out the potential privacy issues around letting people download data that technically doesn’t belong to them, despite the fact that they’re tagged in or commented on it.

Don’t panic if you don’t have the option to download these new bits of information, though. Facebook says it is gradually rolling out the added data points to users. You can download your content from the Accounts Settings page in Facebook.

Image via Dylan Tweney