6 ms·

Clickbait much? The writer is struggling to delete his facebook account? "Will you delete Facebook? Probably not. Will I? I’m working on it." So much drama. I

by ibdf 9y ago

Clickbait much? The writer is struggling to delete his facebook account? "Will you delete Facebook? Probably not. Will I? I’m working on it." So much drama. I can help: How to delete fb account: https://www.facebook.com/help/250563911970368?helpref=hc_global_nav https://www.facebook.com/help/250563911970368?helpref=hc_glo... You can also download your data before deleting it: https://www.facebook.com/help/1701730696756992/?helpref=hc_fnav https://www.facebook.com/help/1701730696756992/?helpref=hc_f... I will delete mine when you delete yours: https://www.facebook.com/johnbiggs https://www.facebook.com/johnbiggs

barce 9y ago
So this doesn't really work. You think you deleted it, but when you "re-activate" your account, there are backups that bring back most of the data from the starting date of your account to just before you deleted it - plus or minus a day.
- bradleyankrom 9y ago
  Also, a) they never really, truly delete your profile (mine, which I deleted in 2013, is still present in some form) and b) one or more shadow profiles will probably pop up, at least giving the impression that you are still on FB.
adtac 9y ago
Pretty sure Facebook's "delete" is just a Boolean toggle called isDeleted with everything else unchanged. But I guess this is the best we have.
- jm1234567890 9y ago
  Will GDPR change this?
  - politician 9y ago
    It will absolutely change how Facebook treats EU citizens; otherwise, they risk extremely large financial penalties. May 25th is GDPR Day. The day when you can withdraw consent to be tracked, stored, or processed by businesses with dealings in Europe. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/nightmare-letter-subject-access-request-under-gdpr-karbaliotis/ https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/nightmare-letter-subject-acce... EDIT: To clarify, GDPR applies to citizens of EU member states globally.
- verylittlemeat 9y ago
  Well think of it this way: all of that data facebook put time, effort and money into collecting from you will become less and less relevant as soon as you delete your account. I wouldn't be surprised if from facebook's point of view they'd rather collect 1/100th of your data as long as it's current data vs just a bunch of irrelevant old data. Pull the plug.
  - beagle3 9y ago
    > I wouldn't be surprised if from facebook's point of view they'd rather collect 1/100th of your data as long as it's current data vs just a bunch of irrelevant old data. Pull the plug. I would be surprised. Most data and preferences change very slowly or never (race, political affiliation, religion, sexual preferences, musical preferences, food preferences). And much of the data that does change frequently, like location and employer, can be sourced from other sources (linkedin, voter registration, donations, your bank and phone company who gladly divulge a lot of info -- did you read the fine print?). Your old flame, your old classmates, your parents, brothers and sisters, the name of your first pet (used for password challenges) -- these things do not change.
munificent 9y ago
My understanding from the Cambridge Analytica stuff is that even if you completely wiped every bit of data from Facebook's servers, it doesn't matter any more. Your personal data, attached to your name, is out in the wild. For a price, someone can buy a detailed psychological profile of you. All of our genies are out of all our bottles. They aren't going back in.
- verylittlemeat 9y ago
  Yeah but I get the feeling that current data is worth way more to facebook and data brokers in general than old data. Having data to make projections is nice but being able to experiment in real time with active data is probably the dream facebook is built on.
  - kimdcmason 9y ago
    This times a million. Delete the FB account now, install uBlock Origin and Privacy Badger, and the data about you that's out there will become increasingly stale.
- olympus 9y ago
  This is somewhat true. However, if you stop adding data to your profile it becomes stale. Since I deleted my facebook profile I moved cities, bought a house, a different car, and have new friends in real life. My old FB profile is probably still a good indicator of which way I'd vote in an election, but it's useless now for targeted advertising. The only way to make that break is to delete your profile now; slowly over time your real life will start to change and eventually won't resemble the digital you at all.
  - glenneroo 9y ago
    > but it's useless now for targeted advertising What makes you think this? According to another recent article about Facebook's data collection[0] says: > And it showed these odd patterns; that, for example, people who liked ‘I hate Israel’ on Facebook also tended to like Nike shoes and KitKats. This gives me the impression that even mundane bits of information can be used to extrapolate other connections through intelligent guessing. [0]: https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/mar/17/data-war-whistleblower-christopher-wylie-faceook-nix-bannon-trump https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/mar/17/data-war-whistl...
monkeynotes 9y ago
Heheh, his last FB post was ~4hrs ago. I guess the cancer has progressed further than he first thought.

by ibdf 9y ago

barce 9y ago

So this doesn't really work. You think you deleted it, but when you "re-activate" your account, there are backups that bring back most of the data from the starting date of your account to just before you deleted it - plus or minus a day.

bradleyankrom 9y ago
Also, a) they never really, truly delete your profile (mine, which I deleted in 2013, is still present in some form) and b) one or more shadow profiles will probably pop up, at least giving the impression that you are still on FB.

adtac 9y ago

Pretty sure Facebook's "delete" is just a Boolean toggle called isDeleted with everything else unchanged. But I guess this is the best we have.

jm1234567890 9y ago
Will GDPR change this?
- politician 9y ago
  It will absolutely change how Facebook treats EU citizens; otherwise, they risk extremely large financial penalties. May 25th is GDPR Day. The day when you can withdraw consent to be tracked, stored, or processed by businesses with dealings in Europe. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/nightmare-letter-subject-access-request-under-gdpr-karbaliotis/ https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/nightmare-letter-subject-acce... EDIT: To clarify, GDPR applies to citizens of EU member states globally.
verylittlemeat 9y ago
Well think of it this way: all of that data facebook put time, effort and money into collecting from you will become less and less relevant as soon as you delete your account. I wouldn't be surprised if from facebook's point of view they'd rather collect 1/100th of your data as long as it's current data vs just a bunch of irrelevant old data. Pull the plug.
- beagle3 9y ago
  > I wouldn't be surprised if from facebook's point of view they'd rather collect 1/100th of your data as long as it's current data vs just a bunch of irrelevant old data. Pull the plug. I would be surprised. Most data and preferences change very slowly or never (race, political affiliation, religion, sexual preferences, musical preferences, food preferences). And much of the data that does change frequently, like location and employer, can be sourced from other sources (linkedin, voter registration, donations, your bank and phone company who gladly divulge a lot of info -- did you read the fine print?). Your old flame, your old classmates, your parents, brothers and sisters, the name of your first pet (used for password challenges) -- these things do not change.

munificent 9y ago

My understanding from the Cambridge Analytica stuff is that even if you completely wiped every bit of data from Facebook's servers, it doesn't matter any more. Your personal data, attached to your name, is out in the wild. For a price, someone can buy a detailed psychological profile of you. All of our genies are out of all our bottles. They aren't going back in.

verylittlemeat 9y ago
Yeah but I get the feeling that current data is worth way more to facebook and data brokers in general than old data. Having data to make projections is nice but being able to experiment in real time with active data is probably the dream facebook is built on.
- kimdcmason 9y ago
  This times a million. Delete the FB account now, install uBlock Origin and Privacy Badger, and the data about you that's out there will become increasingly stale.
olympus 9y ago
This is somewhat true. However, if you stop adding data to your profile it becomes stale. Since I deleted my facebook profile I moved cities, bought a house, a different car, and have new friends in real life. My old FB profile is probably still a good indicator of which way I'd vote in an election, but it's useless now for targeted advertising. The only way to make that break is to delete your profile now; slowly over time your real life will start to change and eventually won't resemble the digital you at all.
- glenneroo 9y ago
  > but it's useless now for targeted advertising What makes you think this? According to another recent article about Facebook's data collection[0] says: > And it showed these odd patterns; that, for example, people who liked ‘I hate Israel’ on Facebook also tended to like Nike shoes and KitKats. This gives me the impression that even mundane bits of information can be used to extrapolate other connections through intelligent guessing. [0]: https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/mar/17/data-war-whistleblower-christopher-wylie-faceook-nix-bannon-trump https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/mar/17/data-war-whistl...

monkeynotes 9y ago

Heheh, his last FB post was ~4hrs ago. I guess the cancer has progressed further than he first thought.