https://github.com/chicks-net/fbdata-forensics
Facebook data forensics
https://github.com/chicks-net/fbdata-forensics
facebook facebook-data perl5
Last synced: about 2 months ago
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Facebook data forensics
- Host: GitHub
- URL: https://github.com/chicks-net/fbdata-forensics
- Owner: chicks-net
- License: gpl-2.0
- Created: 2018-04-24T15:10:30.000Z (about 7 years ago)
- Default Branch: master
- Last Pushed: 2018-12-28T21:13:22.000Z (over 6 years ago)
- Last Synced: 2025-04-13T01:52:35.461Z (about 2 months ago)
- Topics: facebook, facebook-data, perl5
- Language: Perl
- Size: 75.2 KB
- Stars: 8
- Watchers: 1
- Forks: 1
- Open Issues: 0
-
Metadata Files:
- Readme: README.md
- License: LICENSE
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README
# Facebook data forensics
[](https://github.com/ellerbrock/open-source-badges/)
[](https://github.com/chicks-net/fbdata-forensics/blob/master/LICENSE)
[](https://github.com/chicks-net/fbdata-forensics/graphs/commit-activity)
Given
[all of](https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/mar/17/cambridge-analytica-facebook-influence-us-election)
the
[recent](https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-46231284)
issues
[around Facebook](https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-43649018)
and the data it keeps about
[all of us](https://www.consumerreports.org/digital-security/what-makes-the-facebook-data-breach-so-harmful/)
it seemed like a good time for a tool to help us analyze the data dump Facebook is
[willing to give us](https://www.facebook.com/help/1701730696756992?helpref=hc_global_nav).
## Feature Status
Working:
* show counts of various database records that Facebook keeps about you
* show how many messages you've sent with each of your Facebook Messenger correspondants
* search for keywrods in your [Facebook Messenger](https://www.facebook.com/messenger/) history
More features are [planned](TODO.md).
## Installation
There are very few dependancies to make this code work.
* Perl 5.x - nothing special or new needed
* [`JSON::MaybeXS`](https://metacpan.org/pod/JSON::MaybeXS) module and one of the three JSON modules it supports.
To get this on CentOS 7 I would run:
yum install perl-JSON-MaybeXS perl-JSON-XS
In Debian or Ubuntu this should work:
apt-get install libjson-maybexs-perl libjson-xs-perl
Once you've got that pre-requisite out of the way somehow you need to clone this repo:
git clone https://github.com/chicks-net/fbdata-forensics.git
cd fbdata-forensics
## Using
### Get your data
Get your data [from Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/help/1701730696756992?helpref=hc_global_nav).
Ask for it as JSON since this tool doesn't process the [HTML flavor](html_v0.1/)
of the data download. I've seen reports of the data taking 2-4 hours to be
ready, but for me it took 28 hours:interrobang: :clock1130: :honey_pot: :zzz:
I hope you aren't in a hurry.
Facebook gives you a file like `facebook-username.zip`.
I would rename it to `facebook-username-YYYMMDD.zip`. So for me it ends up being `facebook-chicks-20181118.zip`.
### Unpack your data
Within a copy of this repo create a directory like `data.username`. For me
`data.chicks` would be created by
mkdir data.chicks
NOTE: Any `data.*` directory will be hard to add to git because it is intentionally in the
[`.gitignore`](.gitignore).
Then unpack your data into that directory:
cd data.chicks
unzip ~/Downloads/facebook-chicks-20181118
# zip, zip, zip
cd ..
# you should be back in the top dir of this repo
### Data overview
To get a high-level overview run `./json-counts` with a directory of Facebook data prepared
as mentioned in the previous section. For example:
fbdata-forensics$ ./json-counts data.chicks
data.chicks looks like a Facebook data dump
- 0 marketplace entries
- 0 saved_items entries
... skipping about_you/face_recognition.json which isn't generic enough for here
... skipping about_you/friend_peer_group.json which isn't generic enough for here
... skipping about_you/your_address_books.json which isn't generic enough for here
- 0 ad interests entries
- 0 advertiser uploaded contact entries
- 4 advertiser touched entries
- 6 installed_apps entries
- 361 app_post entries
- 79 comment entries
### Search messages
Edit the [`keywords.txt`](keywords.txt) file to contain the words to dig for in your messages.
Then run `./json-messages` with a directory of Facebook data like so:
fbdata-forensics$ ./json-messages data.chicks/
data.chicks/ looks like a Facebook data dump
- 107 conversations found in Facebook Messages
+ 1 messages with Abe Jones (inbox)
$keyword_matches = {};
+ 1 messages with Alex Smith (inbox)
$keyword_matches = {};
+ 6 messages with Bob Smith (inbox)
$keyword_matches = {};
+ 1 messages with Carol Jones (inbox)
$keyword_matches = {};
## Support
Please file [github issues](https://github.com/chicks-net/fbdata-forensics/issues)
for things not [already planned](TODO.md).
## Mentions
* [Article](docs/eforensics_article.md) in [December 2018 issue of eForensics](https://eforensicsmag.com/download/social-media-forensics/).
## Author
[Christopher Hicks](http://www.chicks.net)
is the primary author of this project. He has gotten
lots of assistance and wonderful feedback so noone
is pretending they are doing it all alone.