17 ms·

Delete Facebook Account

440 points by cdransf 9y ago

Waterluvian 9y ago
What's the best way to test if my account is deleted? Every month or so I'll get a handful of emails from Facebook saying it looks like I'm trying to log in and asks if I need help with that. Either they're trying to get me to re-join in a very pathetic way, or someone else is trying to sign up using my email address, causing Facebook to think they want to re-activate my account.
- eatbitseveryday 9y ago
  I received the same emails and even as text messages... I did not delete, just haven't logged in for a month or two. In my opinion, the messages are fraudulent about their intentions. They misrepresent a 'security-related' incident to get me to go on the site again.
  - cyberferret 9y ago
    I don't remember receiving anything like this, even after taking months away from the platform. Are you sure your internet profile elsewhere is not subjecting you to doxxing attempts? I know friends who are in publishing or blogging etc. with fairly well known profiles on the internet, and they seem to be targeted far more regularly with attempted unauthorised logins to their email and social media accounts.
    - 628C6l0 9y ago
      This. It's far more likely to be doxxing attempts. I was contacted by an undergraduate asking for grad school advice. Five minutes later there were several emails in the inbox from Facebook with exactly that content. I don't normally receive anything at that address (everyone I know emails me at a different address). How do you expect me to give you advice when you pull this shit on me?
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
  - brooklyn_ashey 9y ago
    agreed. I took a break from fb and got several of these per week.
- phatbyte 9y ago
  I'm also getting these emails. Deleted (not deact) my account 8 months ago and recently started getting notifications that someone is trying to sign up. If this comes from facebook just makes me not want to touch anything related to the brand anymore
- PetitPrince 9y ago
  Wouldn't that be related to various data breaches that happened over the years ? Not from Facebook in particular: it would make sense to try a login/e-mail and password from the Adobe data breach to see if this combination indeed works.
- howlgram 9y ago
  I do use facebook, last thursday I got an email saying that I was trying to log in when I wasn't and it was super weird for it to happen at the time. It's either some bug, exploit, or facebook doing it on purpose.
- jerf 9y ago
  In addition to the other fine suggestions, I'd add that i they could simply be phishing emails. I get all sorts of such warnings and emails "from" sites I've never created accounts for.
- 42434445 9y ago
  Do those emails occur soon after you log in to Spotify? I recently found out that Spotify secretly tries to log you in as a Facebook user even if you don't use Facebook login. It first tries to pass the credentials through Facebook login and if that fails it goes through regular email login. This failed attempt triggers the Facebook security emails I'm not sure that what they are doing is even legal. Just another reason to NEVER use the same email/password combination on multiple sites. I wouldn't be surprised if other apps are doing the same thing.
  - Waterluvian 9y ago
    Ive never used Spotify. They seem to happen at random and their wording is a bit vague. As if someone's trying to access my account but they don't outright say so.
philovivero 9y ago
What I really want to know: how to permanently delete your entire presense of Google. All your emails, sent or received, all your G+, all your calendar reminders, Hangouts, etc. Seems a daunting task. Especially the part where you have to contact everyone you know and ask them to delete their emails and hangouts with you.
- yeukhon 9y ago
  Regarding your second part: Shouldn't this be just "how do I delete anything I interact with people?" Emails from privately run email server means you still have to find everyone and have everyone do the job (but I bet you most won't). If you don't own the server, say no more. What about caches? PDF?
- AlfeG 9y ago
  Violate Google TOS. And You will need be able to get access back
- danieldk 9y ago
  What I really want to know: how to permanently delete your entire presense of Google. You can't. Google reserves the right to retain/use your data indefinitely: The rights you grant in this license are for the limited purpose of operating, promoting, and improving our Services, and to develop new ones. This license continues even if you stop using our Services (for example, for a business listing you have added to Google Maps). Source: https://www.google.com/policies/terms/ https://www.google.com/policies/terms/
  - flexie 9y ago
    As long as Google does business in Europe, Google's license is subject to law: http://ec.europa.eu/justice/data-protection/files/factsheets/factsheet_data_protection_en.pdf http://ec.europa.eu/justice/data-protection/files/factsheets... While it's not a complete deletion, it's a step in that direction.
    - thg 9y ago
smegel 9y ago
Delete mainstream news while you are at it. I cut out facebook and all news save HN and a couple of subreddits and a strictly local news site. My life has improved.
- camillomiller 9y ago
  Wouldn't that be even a stricter bubble than what acebook serves you?
  - smegel 9y ago
    I suppose that would be one way of looking at it. I prefer to see it as restricting information flow to that I am strictly interested in, or has a potential real-life impact on me (local news). It's a bubble of my choosing curated by me. And I would try and escape the bubble not by expanding my online exposure to dis/information, but by getting out into the real world and doing more stuff there.
    - TaylorAlexander 9y ago
      I hear what you're saying - it's about signal to noise. Reduce the noise and you become better informed, not worse. I stopped using Facebook and I don't follow mainstream news. I don't hear much about Trump or North Korea but I read my subreddits (I dropped /r/politics) and learn about Rojava in Syria, talk with my friends about the Diversity Memo and work hard to hear a detailed woman's view on the matter, or hit my YouTube subscriptions to find a lecture on physics or social issues. I still 100% have a bubble but I don't think adding Facebook or MSM back in to my life would in any way improve the fidelity of my view on the world. In my opinion MSM looks like garbage from any angle and Facebook just began to feel unhealthy (for me).
    - laumars 9y ago
      I'm not passing judgement on your personal ability to seek out counterarguments but more generally speaking this is exactly how echo chambers come about. People are generally only interested in news that confirms their pre-existing biases and will often cite the same arguments you make in defence of their echo chamber. I'm not saying I don't sympathise with your approach as a persons time is only finite. But if you are interested in fact or even just balanced opinion then you do need to be aware of the bubble you're creating and be willing to question what you read / hear on any issues of importance.
chauhankiran 9y ago
ironically Google ads showing fb ad to register.
aryehof 9y ago
Nice to see simple instructions with direct links to relevant leaving Facebook pages. Hopefully they remain up to date as Facebook makes changes to its "exit policy".
alvil 9y ago
There is no such thing as permanently delete Facebook or Google account :)
- topmonk 9y ago
  Nuke it from orbit. It's the only way to be sure...
  - solatic 9y ago
    The architectures replicate the data across globally-distributed data centers. You're going to need a lot of nukes... ;)
    - ComodoHacker 9y ago
      And be in a hurry, before they become planetary-distributed. With quantum entanglement-powered replication.
  - juiyout 9y ago
    Let's say, ALL facebook resources are wiped out from the planet. I suspect that users' data still partly exists external to facebook due to facebook having used users' data for advertising with our consent to their TOS.
- dang 9y ago
  OK, we've removed "permanently" from the title above.
- pasta 9y ago
  I also believe there is no such thing as not having an Facebook or Google account. They create it for you by creating your tracked profile. The only thing that happens when you create an account is that they can give the profile a name.
  - frik 9y ago
    Yes. It's called shadow profile, they know your name from your friends address book.
2845197541 9y ago
Does this delete private messages? Or can recipients still see your messages and name.
- gfredtech 9y ago
  when I first deleted my Facebook account, I decided to keep tabs on it(letting a friend check if she could still see messages we exchanged). For a while, my name was shown as part of the message(but it was black, so you could not click it like a link). I made her check later on and it just said "Unknown user" or so, I cannot recall the exact phrase. Our messages were still there
  - vcanales 9y ago
    "Facebook User" is what used to show up on my inbox, for deleted accounts.
brijeshb42 9y ago
After the article, I was presented with an ad to create a profile on Facebook.
- flexie 9y ago
  One ad driven website making a business out of trying to get you off another. Wonder what the internet would be like if there was an easier way to make money than ads.
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
  - 659087 9y ago
    I'm guessing it would be a modernized version of the way things were before every jackass with a selfie stick or a blog decided that they deserve to make a living shitting their thoughts and lunch pictures onto the internet.
webbrahmin 9y ago
My experience with deleting my LinkedIn accounnt; Tried deleting. LinkedIn responded with a message saying I have active ads running and I am the creator of a LinkedIn group. I ran an ad campaign ages back and created a group long time back. I am stuck with LinkedIn because of this. Worse than dark pattern.
- ci5er 9y ago
  I've re-read your comment a few times. Now - it's early - but I'm missing something. Is this a "Dark Pattern" (I'm not even going to try to parse how something can be darker than dark)? Or is it a safety feature (although maybe badly designed)? Maybe all you have to do is shut down your ad campaign and your group. Then deactivate/delete your account. Would this not work?
  - _asummers 9y ago
    It's a dark pattern if when creating those entities within LinkedIn if it's not clear that by doing that, you're removing the ability to ever close your account. But I agree with you -- deleting is definitely worth trying.
- tombrossman 9y ago
  Why not try a different approach, and start posting nonsense or content that breaches their T&Cs instead? Send annoying messages and make requests to lots of random LinkedIn employees. Embrace the fact that they want to keep your account open and keep shitposting until they decide to quit (by closing your account or banning you).
- sah2ed 9y ago
  Perhaps you could try to transfer admin rights to another LinkedIn user before re-attempting to delete the group? My guess is that they require at least one user account to possess admin privileges for a group especially if it is non-empty. Another approach would be to remove all users from the group before trying to delete the group.
- vesche 9y ago
unlmtd1 9y ago
Cmon everyone! Matrix has a good data structure and working clients, including e2e. Can't see anything that far ahead. matrix.org
- kuschku 9y ago
  And is heavily reliant on a single corporate sponsor, for server, protocol and client development, AND running the centralized server with basically all matrix users on it. Wasn’t the goal decentralization?
  - Arathorn 9y ago
    sigh Please stop spreading FUD about Matrix? We no longer have single corporate sponsorship (our historical main sponsor pulled out because the project is so successful they didn't see why they should be the only ones paying the bill), and based on what we know of the overall network, <50% users use matrix.org.
    - kuschku 9y ago
      Oh, so now you have 3 companies sponsoring you again. A short while ago only PIA had become a major sponsor (which also already happens to own two major IRC networks, and be the largest sponsor of some IRC clients) When we’re discussing "decentralizing" things, these things become important. In those cases, we shouldn’t give such companies any influence in any way. As we’ve seen with Google a few days ago, relying on funding from a company can end up with you having to either give up your project, or follow their demands.
      - Arathorn 9y ago
        We haven't given our sponsors any influence in any way, and we are aiming for a lot more than 3. The sponsorship is purely in return for their logo appearing on the website and promoting them on the blog etc as sponsors.
PrimeDirective 9y ago
I "deleted" my account on Facebook about 7 years ago. This January they randomly reactivated it just like that. It's public and visible. I haven't logged in there, because that would just show them I want it back. I'm pretty sure this is in breach with their own terms. And maybe even illegal in the EU. I haven't had the time to take any action not am I sure what should I even do. Maybe report this to some EU watchdog?
- kayoone 9y ago
  absolutely illegal in the EU, learn more about their countless violations on http://europe-v-facebook.org/ http://europe-v-facebook.org/
- blauditore 9y ago
  Are you sure it's your account and not just a fake profile copying your data (by some spam bot)? Not sure how to verify this though. However, 7 years seems like a long time span for Spammers to wait and revive that data. You could try to use the report button and say it's a fake profile.
- dhruvkar 9y ago
  Almost the exact same timeline. I 'deleted' my account in 2010. My wife showed me my activated profile earlier this year. I logged in again and re-deleted it. But I somehow doubt it's actually gone.
- dbrgn 9y ago
  To avoid that kind of stuff, when I deleted my account a few years back, I used an automated script to delete all my posts. Then I went through my profile and replaced all fields with empty or no fake data. If they ever reactivate my account, there's not much left to see. By the way, I thought quitting Facebook was going to be hard. But I haven't regretted it a second. Same thing with Whatsapp.
  - bhnmmhmd 9y ago
    Could you please share the script you used?
rbjorklin 9y ago
I'm hoping GDPR will help get ALL my data removed. [1] [1]: Right to be forgotten: http://www.eugdpr.org/key-changes.html http://www.eugdpr.org/key-changes.html
anotheryou 9y ago
I got a test account banned for a david hockney picture that had a single-brush-stroke ass-crack visible (I wanted to see where they draw the line. For new accounts far earlier than I had expected). They refused to delete the account afterwards, it's just permanently deactivated. (this was years ago, before I even had a real account)
- Tepix 9y ago
  banned is not the same as deleted.
  - anotheryou 9y ago
    Exactly. And getting banned seems to invalidate your right to get deleted. Under german law this would be illegal.
slackingoff2017 9y ago
I didn't delete my account but I let it go dormant about 4 years ago. Don't miss it a bit. Social media is all about making you feel bad. Its a platform for people with low self esteem to dream about what their lives could have been. For older folks to remember the past. For the average guy/gal to keep tabs on old flames. And most importantly a place for jackasses and rich people with various complexes to show the world how great their lives are. And Facebook is great at figuring out your weakness. For me for example, Facebook became a window for re-imagining my life in college. No thanks. The trip down memory lane is fun every once in a while but the old picture catalog in the closet has morphed into an insidious entity, always beckoning you back. My phone vibrates, someone posted a new picture of you from 5 years ago and 50 people like it. Remember that day? All those people. Dont you? Fuck that, I'm done being screwed with by a platform designed to give you your fix.
- peterlk 9y ago
  I have lived with essentially 0 social media presence for about seven years now, and I can say with certainty that my life is better without it. Facebook et al create an atmosphere where a relationship is defined by clicking a button that says "like" on someone's picture or sending them happy birthday wishes when you're reminded to. I find that even if I haven't seen someone in years, giving them a call and meeting up with them produces far better results than tepid, meaningless banter mediated by a walled garden. "But what if they live far away?" you ask. Send them an email. Long form, asynchronous, high latency communication also produces far better results than consistent small talk on Facebook
  - partisan 9y ago
    I've had just about 0 social media activity as well. My wife deleted her account and I meant to as well, but only remember when I get a new friend request, which I promptly ignore. I guess my question is: do you use it minimally or not at all? I stopped using FB before I could get a sense for the feeling it gave me. I gather that it gives people the feelings you describe, but I wonder if that is the reality or just what people say.
- lucideer 9y ago
nnd 9y ago
My only problem with deleting a Facebook account is the Facebook login, which some of the apps enforce and most importantly developing apps which use Facebook login (for test purposes). Surely I can create a fake account for that, but then you also need to resist the peer pressure of people trying to add you as “friends” all the time.
- quickben 9y ago
  As time goes, that won't be your only problem. Every business will try to tie you down as much as possible. Fb just has something very nice and heavy knots.
itchyjunk 9y ago
I had de-activated my account ~7 years ago. Back then, deleting facebook was not an option. I thought I was done with it till recently (~2 months) i started getting all sorts of notification and what not on the linked email. Even got an email saying my `linked phone number` was removed. I never had one and had not used fb on phone ever. It was however an old number of mine(walmart straight talk number i had for ~4 months around the time i had deactivated it). Idk how that got added or approved or when that happened but w/e. I hated the idea of having to re-login to delete. (I wish i could have used some other burner computer or anything other than my laptop but maybe this is too much paranoia.) But I did recover password and went through the deletion process. I didn't even bother asking for copy of my data or w/e. And I don't even care if NSA or whoever has a copy of it. By making leaving facebook hard, it made me bitter about it back then. Hopefully my account will be deleted from facebook and i never have to see use that site again. P.S. Thanks for the link HN, I'd volunteer my personal data to some of the people here if they ever needed to compete with FB A.I! o/
eksemplar 9y ago
Ive kept my account although I've wanted to delete it several times, trimmed it down to make it look like anyone's ordinary life. I sometimes posts pictures from social events I attend, but only clean stuff that looks like something a normal nerdy person would do. At one point I figured that I might need it to seem normal sometime in the future. Traveling to the US last year I'm glad I did, passed through the border checkup much easier than my other privacy loving friends who deleted thei social media accounts. I also kept my gmail address even though I moved to fastmail. Mostly use it for signing up to things and unimportant stuff, but it sure was handy at the airport. I guess it still exposes some of my life, but it's not like I can ever become anonymous again, since they never delete anything.
- jimktrains2 9y ago
  > Traveling to the US last year I'm glad I did, passed through the border checkup much easier than my other privacy loving friends who deleted thei social media accounts. This is sad. As a US citizen, I have no idea how to even begin fighting crap like this.
  - danielrmay 9y ago
    Donate to the EFF. They're the only organisation providing solid advice on how to protect yourself against these (IMO unconstitutional) border searches [1] [1]: https://www.eff.org/wp/digital-privacy-us-border-2017 https://www.eff.org/wp/digital-privacy-us-border-2017
    - jimktrains2 9y ago
      I've been contributing monthly to the EFF (and ACLU, among other organization) for years. And will also encourage others to do so! They're great organizations! The issue is the EFF and ACLU aren't going to be able to get sweeping legislative changes themselves. We, the constituency, need to be very vocal action as well. I just feel ignored and dismissed by my Congress Critters.
- naner 9y ago
ajmarsh 9y ago
My favorite article on the subject. Unfortunately, it's down had to use the Wayback machine to find it. https://web.archive.org/web/20120719002103/http://betabeat.com/2011/12/in-which-eben-moglen-like-legit-yells-at-me-for-being-on-facebook/ https://web.archive.org/web/20120719002103/http://betabeat.c...
brightball 9y ago
I always wonder if programmers have a different experience on Facebook than other folks. I deactivated my account this year and a lot of it was because I could identify the patterns of content that I was being fed by the algorithms and didn't care for it. On top of that after I had the same political conversation with the same person for about the 5th time I just decided it wasn't worth the time anymore. Do nonprogrammers not pick up on those patterns?
- aphextron 9y ago
  >Do nonprogrammers not pick up on those patterns? I really think they don't. Thats a big part of the problem. Lay people are being tricked into thinking that their Facebook feed is a reflection of reality rather than a highly curated set of articles designed to appeal to their specific sensibilities. They have no concept of what goes into the platform behind the scenes. They have no concept of the fact that there is a building in California full of thousands of world class scientists whose sole purpose in life is to get them to check that notification on their phone. They have the illusion of choice when it is pure psychological manipulation
- slim 9y ago
  I quit Facebook in 2008 and restarted using it last year. I use it defensively more or less once a week. I must say it's fun to play with it's patterns and rewarding when he welcomes you with "good morning" when it's night :) But you realise how much he knows about you and how much discipline you need to escape it's algorithms. For example I click on random profiles and wait for them to request my friendship (supposedly because fb suggested me to them for friendship). But sometimes I must resist clicking on really interesting people because I'm afraid fb would know too much about me. It's even more difficult when scrolling. If I stop scrolling on something it thinks I'm interested in the same kind of content. Sometimes I slip. Fortunately I'm "friend" with very few real friends. Most of my "friends" are random people. So my timeline consists of random things that are more or less interesting depending on my mood.
- orbitur 9y ago
  Facebook is just dumb fun for me, a time waster when I'm waiting in line, and I like seeing the pics my friends put up. Some of my friends are pretty good at aggregating funny memes. Am I not a programmer now?
methodin 9y ago
Is it plausible to flag yourself via other people so your account gets blocked? Wonder if that would yield a permanent removal.
nine_k 9y ago
I have a Facebook account that I don't use. It lists my real name and certain public details. I keep it to prevent anyone from imposing me on FB.
- drdeadringer 9y ago
  When you must use a service to prevent impersonation, something is wrong.
mavidser 9y ago
I'm still on the fence about the fact that having a facebook account is a bad thing. I have seen it consuming a lot of my time in the past, and I did deactivate my account for a few months last year. I improved my life a lot, there were fewer distractions, and I generally had better self esteem. Not much was missing, except for a few conveniences I had with the account. I have since reactivated my Facebook account, using it sparingly now. Instead, I uninstalled all IM apps from my phone, and turned off Email/slack/work notifications. I do not have the Facebook app, or the website in my bookmarks. I receive no alerts, no messages anywhere. Every week or so, I take 5-10 minutes to scroll down the News Feed (btw, doing this has the effect that I usually see much higher quality posts which Facebook thinks I've missed rather than a whole stream of memes and ads). I may or may not read the messages, and don't reply a lot. I have my email and phone number listed on my profile, so if anyone needs to really contact me, they almost always find ways to do so. This gives me the option to use the perks at my will without being addicted and consumed by it. Visiting a city? Use the graph search to connect with friends you can visit. I can look up old photos at will if referencing anything. All this, given the fact that it's one of the only ways to connect with most of my non-tech (who rarely check their emails) friends in an asynchronous manner. PS: This is not a comment praising Facebook. I definitely like having my privacy in my hand, out of NSA's reach. I'm just giving a reason as to why so many people might not be keen to delete their Facebook profile.
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
EternalData 9y ago
I wonder if there's a comprehensive guide somewhere to maintaining control over your personally identifiable information across all platforms.
CaptObvious2 9y ago
Is it really that hard to get them to remove your account? Given their latest news of removing accounts with mild content, it seems easy enough to satisfy those requirements, and get exactly what you are asking for.
cconstantin 9y ago
The thing that prevents me from leaving Facebook is a couple of Pages that are driving traffic to my websites and humans to my communities. What to do?

440 points by cdransf 9y ago

What's the best way to test if my account is deleted? Every month or so I'll get a handful of emails from Facebook saying it looks like I'm trying to log in and asks if I need help with that. Either they're trying to get me to re-join in a very pathetic way, or someone else is trying to sign up using my email address, causing Facebook to think they want to re-activate my account.

eatbitseveryday 9y ago
I received the same emails and even as text messages... I did not delete, just haven't logged in for a month or two. In my opinion, the messages are fraudulent about their intentions. They misrepresent a 'security-related' incident to get me to go on the site again.
- cyberferret 9y ago
  I don't remember receiving anything like this, even after taking months away from the platform. Are you sure your internet profile elsewhere is not subjecting you to doxxing attempts? I know friends who are in publishing or blogging etc. with fairly well known profiles on the internet, and they seem to be targeted far more regularly with attempted unauthorised logins to their email and social media accounts.
  - 628C6l0 9y ago
    This. It's far more likely to be doxxing attempts. I was contacted by an undergraduate asking for grad school advice. Five minutes later there were several emails in the inbox from Facebook with exactly that content. I don't normally receive anything at that address (everyone I know emails me at a different address). How do you expect me to give you advice when you pull this shit on me?
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- brooklyn_ashey 9y ago
  agreed. I took a break from fb and got several of these per week.
phatbyte 9y ago
I'm also getting these emails. Deleted (not deact) my account 8 months ago and recently started getting notifications that someone is trying to sign up. If this comes from facebook just makes me not want to touch anything related to the brand anymore
PetitPrince 9y ago
Wouldn't that be related to various data breaches that happened over the years ? Not from Facebook in particular: it would make sense to try a login/e-mail and password from the Adobe data breach to see if this combination indeed works.
howlgram 9y ago
I do use facebook, last thursday I got an email saying that I was trying to log in when I wasn't and it was super weird for it to happen at the time. It's either some bug, exploit, or facebook doing it on purpose.
jerf 9y ago
In addition to the other fine suggestions, I'd add that i they could simply be phishing emails. I get all sorts of such warnings and emails "from" sites I've never created accounts for.
42434445 9y ago
Do those emails occur soon after you log in to Spotify? I recently found out that Spotify secretly tries to log you in as a Facebook user even if you don't use Facebook login. It first tries to pass the credentials through Facebook login and if that fails it goes through regular email login. This failed attempt triggers the Facebook security emails I'm not sure that what they are doing is even legal. Just another reason to NEVER use the same email/password combination on multiple sites. I wouldn't be surprised if other apps are doing the same thing.
- Waterluvian 9y ago
  Ive never used Spotify. They seem to happen at random and their wording is a bit vague. As if someone's trying to access my account but they don't outright say so.

philovivero 9y ago

What I really want to know: how to permanently delete your entire presense of Google. All your emails, sent or received, all your G+, all your calendar reminders, Hangouts, etc. Seems a daunting task. Especially the part where you have to contact everyone you know and ask them to delete their emails and hangouts with you.

yeukhon 9y ago
Regarding your second part: Shouldn't this be just "how do I delete anything I interact with people?" Emails from privately run email server means you still have to find everyone and have everyone do the job (but I bet you most won't). If you don't own the server, say no more. What about caches? PDF?
AlfeG 9y ago
Violate Google TOS. And You will need be able to get access back
danieldk 9y ago
What I really want to know: how to permanently delete your entire presense of Google. You can't. Google reserves the right to retain/use your data indefinitely: The rights you grant in this license are for the limited purpose of operating, promoting, and improving our Services, and to develop new ones. This license continues even if you stop using our Services (for example, for a business listing you have added to Google Maps). Source: https://www.google.com/policies/terms/ https://www.google.com/policies/terms/
- flexie 9y ago
  As long as Google does business in Europe, Google's license is subject to law: http://ec.europa.eu/justice/data-protection/files/factsheets/factsheet_data_protection_en.pdf http://ec.europa.eu/justice/data-protection/files/factsheets... While it's not a complete deletion, it's a step in that direction.
  - thg 9y ago

smegel 9y ago

Delete mainstream news while you are at it. I cut out facebook and all news save HN and a couple of subreddits and a strictly local news site. My life has improved.

camillomiller 9y ago
Wouldn't that be even a stricter bubble than what acebook serves you?
- smegel 9y ago
  I suppose that would be one way of looking at it. I prefer to see it as restricting information flow to that I am strictly interested in, or has a potential real-life impact on me (local news). It's a bubble of my choosing curated by me. And I would try and escape the bubble not by expanding my online exposure to dis/information, but by getting out into the real world and doing more stuff there.
  - TaylorAlexander 9y ago
    I hear what you're saying - it's about signal to noise. Reduce the noise and you become better informed, not worse. I stopped using Facebook and I don't follow mainstream news. I don't hear much about Trump or North Korea but I read my subreddits (I dropped /r/politics) and learn about Rojava in Syria, talk with my friends about the Diversity Memo and work hard to hear a detailed woman's view on the matter, or hit my YouTube subscriptions to find a lecture on physics or social issues. I still 100% have a bubble but I don't think adding Facebook or MSM back in to my life would in any way improve the fidelity of my view on the world. In my opinion MSM looks like garbage from any angle and Facebook just began to feel unhealthy (for me).
  - laumars 9y ago
    I'm not passing judgement on your personal ability to seek out counterarguments but more generally speaking this is exactly how echo chambers come about. People are generally only interested in news that confirms their pre-existing biases and will often cite the same arguments you make in defence of their echo chamber. I'm not saying I don't sympathise with your approach as a persons time is only finite. But if you are interested in fact or even just balanced opinion then you do need to be aware of the bubble you're creating and be willing to question what you read / hear on any issues of importance.

chauhankiran 9y ago

ironically Google ads showing fb ad to register.

aryehof 9y ago

Nice to see simple instructions with direct links to relevant leaving Facebook pages. Hopefully they remain up to date as Facebook makes changes to its "exit policy".

alvil 9y ago

There is no such thing as permanently delete Facebook or Google account :)

topmonk 9y ago
Nuke it from orbit. It's the only way to be sure...
- solatic 9y ago
  The architectures replicate the data across globally-distributed data centers. You're going to need a lot of nukes... ;)
  - ComodoHacker 9y ago
    And be in a hurry, before they become planetary-distributed. With quantum entanglement-powered replication.
- juiyout 9y ago
  Let's say, ALL facebook resources are wiped out from the planet. I suspect that users' data still partly exists external to facebook due to facebook having used users' data for advertising with our consent to their TOS.
dang 9y ago
OK, we've removed "permanently" from the title above.
pasta 9y ago
I also believe there is no such thing as not having an Facebook or Google account. They create it for you by creating your tracked profile. The only thing that happens when you create an account is that they can give the profile a name.
- frik 9y ago
  Yes. It's called shadow profile, they know your name from your friends address book.

2845197541 9y ago

Does this delete private messages? Or can recipients still see your messages and name.

gfredtech 9y ago
when I first deleted my Facebook account, I decided to keep tabs on it(letting a friend check if she could still see messages we exchanged). For a while, my name was shown as part of the message(but it was black, so you could not click it like a link). I made her check later on and it just said "Unknown user" or so, I cannot recall the exact phrase. Our messages were still there
- vcanales 9y ago
  "Facebook User" is what used to show up on my inbox, for deleted accounts.

brijeshb42 9y ago

After the article, I was presented with an ad to create a profile on Facebook.

flexie 9y ago
One ad driven website making a business out of trying to get you off another. Wonder what the internet would be like if there was an easier way to make money than ads.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- 659087 9y ago
  I'm guessing it would be a modernized version of the way things were before every jackass with a selfie stick or a blog decided that they deserve to make a living shitting their thoughts and lunch pictures onto the internet.

webbrahmin 9y ago

My experience with deleting my LinkedIn accounnt; Tried deleting. LinkedIn responded with a message saying I have active ads running and I am the creator of a LinkedIn group. I ran an ad campaign ages back and created a group long time back. I am stuck with LinkedIn because of this. Worse than dark pattern.

ci5er 9y ago
I've re-read your comment a few times. Now - it's early - but I'm missing something. Is this a "Dark Pattern" (I'm not even going to try to parse how something can be darker than dark)? Or is it a safety feature (although maybe badly designed)? Maybe all you have to do is shut down your ad campaign and your group. Then deactivate/delete your account. Would this not work?
- _asummers 9y ago
  It's a dark pattern if when creating those entities within LinkedIn if it's not clear that by doing that, you're removing the ability to ever close your account. But I agree with you -- deleting is definitely worth trying.
tombrossman 9y ago
Why not try a different approach, and start posting nonsense or content that breaches their T&Cs instead? Send annoying messages and make requests to lots of random LinkedIn employees. Embrace the fact that they want to keep your account open and keep shitposting until they decide to quit (by closing your account or banning you).
sah2ed 9y ago
Perhaps you could try to transfer admin rights to another LinkedIn user before re-attempting to delete the group? My guess is that they require at least one user account to possess admin privileges for a group especially if it is non-empty. Another approach would be to remove all users from the group before trying to delete the group.
vesche 9y ago

unlmtd1 9y ago

Cmon everyone! Matrix has a good data structure and working clients, including e2e. Can't see anything that far ahead. matrix.org

kuschku 9y ago
And is heavily reliant on a single corporate sponsor, for server, protocol and client development, AND running the centralized server with basically all matrix users on it. Wasn’t the goal decentralization?
- Arathorn 9y ago
  sigh Please stop spreading FUD about Matrix? We no longer have single corporate sponsorship (our historical main sponsor pulled out because the project is so successful they didn't see why they should be the only ones paying the bill), and based on what we know of the overall network, <50% users use matrix.org.
  - kuschku 9y ago
    Oh, so now you have 3 companies sponsoring you again. A short while ago only PIA had become a major sponsor (which also already happens to own two major IRC networks, and be the largest sponsor of some IRC clients) When we’re discussing "decentralizing" things, these things become important. In those cases, we shouldn’t give such companies any influence in any way. As we’ve seen with Google a few days ago, relying on funding from a company can end up with you having to either give up your project, or follow their demands.
    - Arathorn 9y ago
      We haven't given our sponsors any influence in any way, and we are aiming for a lot more than 3. The sponsorship is purely in return for their logo appearing on the website and promoting them on the blog etc as sponsors.

PrimeDirective 9y ago

I "deleted" my account on Facebook about 7 years ago. This January they randomly reactivated it just like that. It's public and visible. I haven't logged in there, because that would just show them I want it back. I'm pretty sure this is in breach with their own terms. And maybe even illegal in the EU. I haven't had the time to take any action not am I sure what should I even do. Maybe report this to some EU watchdog?

kayoone 9y ago
absolutely illegal in the EU, learn more about their countless violations on http://europe-v-facebook.org/ http://europe-v-facebook.org/
blauditore 9y ago
Are you sure it's your account and not just a fake profile copying your data (by some spam bot)? Not sure how to verify this though. However, 7 years seems like a long time span for Spammers to wait and revive that data. You could try to use the report button and say it's a fake profile.
dhruvkar 9y ago
Almost the exact same timeline. I 'deleted' my account in 2010. My wife showed me my activated profile earlier this year. I logged in again and re-deleted it. But I somehow doubt it's actually gone.
dbrgn 9y ago
To avoid that kind of stuff, when I deleted my account a few years back, I used an automated script to delete all my posts. Then I went through my profile and replaced all fields with empty or no fake data. If they ever reactivate my account, there's not much left to see. By the way, I thought quitting Facebook was going to be hard. But I haven't regretted it a second. Same thing with Whatsapp.
- bhnmmhmd 9y ago
  Could you please share the script you used?

rbjorklin 9y ago

I'm hoping GDPR will help get ALL my data removed. [1] [1]: Right to be forgotten: http://www.eugdpr.org/key-changes.html http://www.eugdpr.org/key-changes.html

anotheryou 9y ago

I got a test account banned for a david hockney picture that had a single-brush-stroke ass-crack visible (I wanted to see where they draw the line. For new accounts far earlier than I had expected). They refused to delete the account afterwards, it's just permanently deactivated. (this was years ago, before I even had a real account)

Tepix 9y ago
banned is not the same as deleted.
- anotheryou 9y ago
  Exactly. And getting banned seems to invalidate your right to get deleted. Under german law this would be illegal.

slackingoff2017 9y ago

I didn't delete my account but I let it go dormant about 4 years ago. Don't miss it a bit. Social media is all about making you feel bad. Its a platform for people with low self esteem to dream about what their lives could have been. For older folks to remember the past. For the average guy/gal to keep tabs on old flames. And most importantly a place for jackasses and rich people with various complexes to show the world how great their lives are. And Facebook is great at figuring out your weakness. For me for example, Facebook became a window for re-imagining my life in college. No thanks. The trip down memory lane is fun every once in a while but the old picture catalog in the closet has morphed into an insidious entity, always beckoning you back. My phone vibrates, someone posted a new picture of you from 5 years ago and 50 people like it. Remember that day? All those people. Dont you? Fuck that, I'm done being screwed with by a platform designed to give you your fix.

peterlk 9y ago
I have lived with essentially 0 social media presence for about seven years now, and I can say with certainty that my life is better without it. Facebook et al create an atmosphere where a relationship is defined by clicking a button that says "like" on someone's picture or sending them happy birthday wishes when you're reminded to. I find that even if I haven't seen someone in years, giving them a call and meeting up with them produces far better results than tepid, meaningless banter mediated by a walled garden. "But what if they live far away?" you ask. Send them an email. Long form, asynchronous, high latency communication also produces far better results than consistent small talk on Facebook
- partisan 9y ago
  I've had just about 0 social media activity as well. My wife deleted her account and I meant to as well, but only remember when I get a new friend request, which I promptly ignore. I guess my question is: do you use it minimally or not at all? I stopped using FB before I could get a sense for the feeling it gave me. I gather that it gives people the feelings you describe, but I wonder if that is the reality or just what people say.
lucideer 9y ago

nnd 9y ago

My only problem with deleting a Facebook account is the Facebook login, which some of the apps enforce and most importantly developing apps which use Facebook login (for test purposes). Surely I can create a fake account for that, but then you also need to resist the peer pressure of people trying to add you as “friends” all the time.

quickben 9y ago
As time goes, that won't be your only problem. Every business will try to tie you down as much as possible. Fb just has something very nice and heavy knots.

itchyjunk 9y ago

I had de-activated my account ~7 years ago. Back then, deleting facebook was not an option. I thought I was done with it till recently (~2 months) i started getting all sorts of notification and what not on the linked email. Even got an email saying my `linked phone number` was removed. I never had one and had not used fb on phone ever. It was however an old number of mine(walmart straight talk number i had for ~4 months around the time i had deactivated it). Idk how that got added or approved or when that happened but w/e. I hated the idea of having to re-login to delete. (I wish i could have used some other burner computer or anything other than my laptop but maybe this is too much paranoia.) But I did recover password and went through the deletion process. I didn't even bother asking for copy of my data or w/e. And I don't even care if NSA or whoever has a copy of it. By making leaving facebook hard, it made me bitter about it back then. Hopefully my account will be deleted from facebook and i never have to see use that site again. P.S. Thanks for the link HN, I'd volunteer my personal data to some of the people here if they ever needed to compete with FB A.I! o/

eksemplar 9y ago

Ive kept my account although I've wanted to delete it several times, trimmed it down to make it look like anyone's ordinary life. I sometimes posts pictures from social events I attend, but only clean stuff that looks like something a normal nerdy person would do. At one point I figured that I might need it to seem normal sometime in the future. Traveling to the US last year I'm glad I did, passed through the border checkup much easier than my other privacy loving friends who deleted thei social media accounts. I also kept my gmail address even though I moved to fastmail. Mostly use it for signing up to things and unimportant stuff, but it sure was handy at the airport. I guess it still exposes some of my life, but it's not like I can ever become anonymous again, since they never delete anything.

jimktrains2 9y ago
> Traveling to the US last year I'm glad I did, passed through the border checkup much easier than my other privacy loving friends who deleted thei social media accounts. This is sad. As a US citizen, I have no idea how to even begin fighting crap like this.
- danielrmay 9y ago
  Donate to the EFF. They're the only organisation providing solid advice on how to protect yourself against these (IMO unconstitutional) border searches [1] [1]: https://www.eff.org/wp/digital-privacy-us-border-2017 https://www.eff.org/wp/digital-privacy-us-border-2017
  - jimktrains2 9y ago
    I've been contributing monthly to the EFF (and ACLU, among other organization) for years. And will also encourage others to do so! They're great organizations! The issue is the EFF and ACLU aren't going to be able to get sweeping legislative changes themselves. We, the constituency, need to be very vocal action as well. I just feel ignored and dismissed by my Congress Critters.
naner 9y ago

ajmarsh 9y ago

My favorite article on the subject. Unfortunately, it's down had to use the Wayback machine to find it. https://web.archive.org/web/20120719002103/http://betabeat.com/2011/12/in-which-eben-moglen-like-legit-yells-at-me-for-being-on-facebook/ https://web.archive.org/web/20120719002103/http://betabeat.c...

brightball 9y ago

I always wonder if programmers have a different experience on Facebook than other folks. I deactivated my account this year and a lot of it was because I could identify the patterns of content that I was being fed by the algorithms and didn't care for it. On top of that after I had the same political conversation with the same person for about the 5th time I just decided it wasn't worth the time anymore. Do nonprogrammers not pick up on those patterns?

aphextron 9y ago
>Do nonprogrammers not pick up on those patterns? I really think they don't. Thats a big part of the problem. Lay people are being tricked into thinking that their Facebook feed is a reflection of reality rather than a highly curated set of articles designed to appeal to their specific sensibilities. They have no concept of what goes into the platform behind the scenes. They have no concept of the fact that there is a building in California full of thousands of world class scientists whose sole purpose in life is to get them to check that notification on their phone. They have the illusion of choice when it is pure psychological manipulation
slim 9y ago
I quit Facebook in 2008 and restarted using it last year. I use it defensively more or less once a week. I must say it's fun to play with it's patterns and rewarding when he welcomes you with "good morning" when it's night :) But you realise how much he knows about you and how much discipline you need to escape it's algorithms. For example I click on random profiles and wait for them to request my friendship (supposedly because fb suggested me to them for friendship). But sometimes I must resist clicking on really interesting people because I'm afraid fb would know too much about me. It's even more difficult when scrolling. If I stop scrolling on something it thinks I'm interested in the same kind of content. Sometimes I slip. Fortunately I'm "friend" with very few real friends. Most of my "friends" are random people. So my timeline consists of random things that are more or less interesting depending on my mood.
orbitur 9y ago
Facebook is just dumb fun for me, a time waster when I'm waiting in line, and I like seeing the pics my friends put up. Some of my friends are pretty good at aggregating funny memes. Am I not a programmer now?

methodin 9y ago

Is it plausible to flag yourself via other people so your account gets blocked? Wonder if that would yield a permanent removal.

nine_k 9y ago

I have a Facebook account that I don't use. It lists my real name and certain public details. I keep it to prevent anyone from imposing me on FB.

drdeadringer 9y ago
When you must use a service to prevent impersonation, something is wrong.

mavidser 9y ago

I'm still on the fence about the fact that having a facebook account is a bad thing. I have seen it consuming a lot of my time in the past, and I did deactivate my account for a few months last year. I improved my life a lot, there were fewer distractions, and I generally had better self esteem. Not much was missing, except for a few conveniences I had with the account. I have since reactivated my Facebook account, using it sparingly now. Instead, I uninstalled all IM apps from my phone, and turned off Email/slack/work notifications. I do not have the Facebook app, or the website in my bookmarks. I receive no alerts, no messages anywhere. Every week or so, I take 5-10 minutes to scroll down the News Feed (btw, doing this has the effect that I usually see much higher quality posts which Facebook thinks I've missed rather than a whole stream of memes and ads). I may or may not read the messages, and don't reply a lot. I have my email and phone number listed on my profile, so if anyone needs to really contact me, they almost always find ways to do so. This gives me the option to use the perks at my will without being addicted and consumed by it. Visiting a city? Use the graph search to connect with friends you can visit. I can look up old photos at will if referencing anything. All this, given the fact that it's one of the only ways to connect with most of my non-tech (who rarely check their emails) friends in an asynchronous manner. PS: This is not a comment praising Facebook. I definitely like having my privacy in my hand, out of NSA's reach. I'm just giving a reason as to why so many people might not be keen to delete their Facebook profile.

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

EternalData 9y ago

I wonder if there's a comprehensive guide somewhere to maintaining control over your personally identifiable information across all platforms.

CaptObvious2 9y ago

Is it really that hard to get them to remove your account? Given their latest news of removing accounts with mild content, it seems easy enough to satisfy those requirements, and get exactly what you are asking for.

cconstantin 9y ago

The thing that prevents me from leaving Facebook is a couple of Pages that are driving traffic to my websites and humans to my communities. What to do?