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You can buy this guy's personal Facebook data, just not on eBay

Oli Frost of London will sell you all the info Facebook gathered on him, including his ignored friend requests. But he won't be selling it on eBay anymore.

Gael Cooper
CNET editor Gael Fashingbauer Cooper, a journalist and pop-culture junkie, is co-author of "Whatever Happened to Pudding Pops? The Lost Toys, Tastes and Trends of the '70s and '80s," as well as "The Totally Sweet '90s." She's been a journalist since 1989, working at Mpls.St.Paul Magazine, Twin Cities Sidewalk, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, and NBC News Digital. She's Gen X in birthdate, word and deed. If Marathon candy bars ever come back, she'll be first in line.
Expertise Breaking news, entertainment, lifestyle, travel, food, shopping and deals, product reviews, money and finance, video games, pets, history, books, technology history, generational studies. Credentials
  • Co-author of two Gen X pop-culture encyclopedia for Penguin Books. Won "Headline Writer of the Year"​ award for 2017, 2014 and 2013 from the American Copy Editors Society. Won first place in headline writing from the 2013 Society for Features Journalism.
Gael Cooper
2 min read
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Oli Frost is trying to sell his personal Facebook data. 

John Kentish

The recent Cambridge Analytica scandal opened many Facebook users' eyes to the fact that their personal data may be viewed as a product -- and a valuable one.

But Oli Frost of London believes that if anyone should be making money off his information, it should be him.

So on Saturday, Frost created a listing on  eBay  UK offering to sell the 10 years of personal info he'd shared with Facebook to the highest bidder. (Here's how to download yours.) 

Included in Frost's data bundle: Everything from "all my friend requests that got ignored" to more serious items, such as "who I vote for, my boss' name, and where all my family live."

"Everyone else's making money off it, so why shouldn't I?" Frost wrote on the listing.

On Tuesday, there were 44 bids, and the price had gone from 99 pence ($1.33, AU$1.77) to £300 ($397, AU$530). But then eBay took Frost's auction down (here's a cached link).

The email he received from eBay called him out for "selling an account for Facebook, which is not permitted as most social networking companies have limitations in their terms of service that restrict the artificial boosting of another member's following or popularity, or the sale of accounts with established followings."

Frost, who's 26 and works in communications, wasn't actually selling a live Facebook account, just the downloaded data the social media site had collected on him. But eBay UK does have a policy against selling "any items associated with social networking accounts that result in or encourage spam or the exchange of personal information."

eBay UK  and Facebook declined to comment.

As for the data, it's still for sale. 

"I'm now taking private offers on my site until I find another place to sell it," Frost told me. He says he plans to donate the money received to San Francisco-based digital-rights group Electronic Frontier Foundation.  

Frost's site humorously explains what the highest bidder will receive. In addition to the ignored friend requests and data on his voting record, boss, and family addresses, the winning bidder can peruse "every party invite I've ever had (all three of them)." The data also includes "a list of things I'm apparently interested in, including 'gluten-free diet', '(British singer) Jessie Ware' and 'project management software.'" 

When asked how his family felt about their information being included in the sale, Frost replied, "(I) asked mum and dad and they're all cool with telling people where they live. I live with them anyway."

What's not included? "Permission to steal my identity and open a sweat shop."

Cambridge Analytica: Everything you need to know about Facebook's data mining scandal.

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