How to delete the contacts that Facebook may have scraped from you

With its invasive advertising, scant regard for privacy, and often poor approach to security, Facebook has done little over the years to win itself many friends. But to help boost your list of friends, it is possible that Facebook may have uploaded your email contacts without your knowledge.

The aim of this was to help find people you might know on the social network, but as there was little warning about the uploading of such private and sensitive information, there was an understandable backlash. If you're concerned about what Facebook has uploaded on your behalf, here's how to delete the contacts that may have been scraped from you.

See also:

• Privacy: Facebook 'unintentionally' scraped and uploaded 1.5 million users' email contacts
• Facebook suffers huge outage, along with WhatsApp and Instagram
• Data of 540 million Facebook users exposed in latest privacy cock-up

Facebook has said that the uploading of users' email contacts was "unintentional" and that it will -- at some point -- delete this information. You may not feel like waiting to see if and when Facebook gets around to this, so you may as well take matters into your own hands.

Use the following steps to delete uploaded contacts:

1. Within Facebook, go to Uploading and Managing Your Contacts.
2. Hit the Delete All button

You should also consider disabling the continuous contact uploading feature within the iOS or Android app:

1. Tap the settings button followed by Settings & Privacy > Settings.
2. In the Media and Contacts section, tap Media and Contacts (Android) or Upload Contacts (iOS).
3. Tap the Continuous Contacts Upload toggle (Android) or Contacts Uploading toggle (iOS) to disable the setting.

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