Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp are all owned by the tech giant Meta Inc. On these three platforms, there are millions and millions of users who have created their accounts and supplied their mobile numbers, email addresses and more. Sometimes even if you do not have any account on any of these platforms, your mobile number still gets added to the huge Meta database. This happens because one of your friends’ shared their contacts list with Facebook Messenger or other Meta apps and your mobile number was on that contacts list.
Fortunately, Meta allows anyone to search for their mobile numbers, landline numbers or email addresses and remove them if you desire so. Here is how it is done:
- In any web browser on your computer, visit https://www.facebook.com/contacts/removal.
- Choose what you want to search for – mobile numbers, landline numbers or email addresses.
- Enter your mobile number (or other information if that is what you have selected to search for) and choose in which of the services that mobile number should be looked for.
- A one-time confirmation code would be sent to your mobile number. Enter this code on the Facebook contact removal page and then you will have the option to remove it from Facebook database in case your information is indeed in the Facebook database.
This process only creates a request to Meta for removal of your contact information from their database. They will remove your information at their own pace. If you want to remove more than one items from the Facebook database, then you should create more requests. Only one item can be removed per request.
Furthermore, Facebook is not entirely going to remove your mobile number. They are going to move your mobile number to a block list so that future automatic additions through someone’s contact list can be prevented.