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I don't understand why go through the hassle of actually deleting (particularly since it is so onerous). It changes nothing. There's probably still a shadow acc

I don't understand why go through the hassle of actually deleting (particularly since it is so onerous). It changes nothing. There's probably still a shadow account of the data you gave them. Deleting the account doesn't put everything back in pandora's box. You can just post that you're abandoning the account with where to reach you online, log out, delete the cookies, and block their domain (what I did) and have the same effect with the bonus that friends can still reach you if they wonder where you went.

ModernMech 9y ago
> There's probably still a shadow account of the data you gave them. Let's hope not, for Zuck's sake, because he just testified in front of Congress that when you delete your account it's gone from Facebook's servers for good.
- Phenomenit 9y ago
  So do they delete your account in all of their backups as well?
  - sdhgaiojfsa 9y ago
    Unlikely, although they do probably keep a listing of accounts not to restore. And of course you'll age out of their backups over time as well.
    - Phenomenit 9y ago
      Yeah but if they wanted to they could just restore the whole thing and ignore the list. I mean as long as you can't see them deleting everything from everywhere you can't be a 100%
      - misterhtmlcss 9y ago
        Legally (I believe) they can't delete an account, they can only hide it or deactivate it. There are rules around the data that go beyond Facebook. Think about it. Someone's told the cops I've been using threats using my Facebook account and I hear that and request the service be deleted. Poof it's all gone. Somehow I don't think that's allowed or does anyone think I'm not making a valid and likely assumption here? Then sure they delete YOUR data, but all the inferencial data such as which sites you clicked like on, which sites you signed into with Facebook, the type of commentary or information you share you made/shared isn't yours and the knowledge gained also isn't the users it's Facebook's so that'll all be there. So sure they won't have your face or name, but they'll know everything else about you that makes you you. Anyway most people don't even know that Facebook owns Instagram or WhatsApp, so no matter what they say unless they are tech savvy they have up at most an account on Facebook, but not it's subsidiaries (I believe).
        TylerE 9y ago
        Messages from A to B are surely stored in the accounts of both A and B (Or more accurately probably stored in a side table referenced from both accounts). Anyway - I really doubt deleting a single account will delete the messages.
amptorn 9y ago
What percentage of Americans would you say know how to do those things, though?
hashkb 9y ago
I have an account but haven't used it in many years. People say my wall looks weird. I haven't seen it. No reason to delete it or log in at all, IMO. Just walk away.
derefr 9y ago
One difference: people who try to invite "you" (i.e. your Facebook profile) to events through Facebook will discover that you don't exist, rather than the event invitation just lingering in your now-abandoned inbox forever.
- eertami 9y ago
  What I did is turn on email notifications for event invites - I now find I never really goto the site unless an event pops up that I'm wanting to go to. Haven't really got an alternative and I don't want to be "that guy" but it's made Facebook usable for me.
kenning 9y ago
> I don't understand why go through the hassle of actually deleting (particularly since it is so onerous). It changes nothing. There's probably still a shadow account of the data you gave them. Deleting the account doesn't put everything back in pandora's box. I don't think most facebook users think this way. The big conflict in my experience with the FB scandal is that tech people understand that it's much easier to just keep data around than to track down and delete all of it, whereas users think about it differently. I believe users conceptualize their access to facebook to be like their access to icloud or dropbox, where they have direct control over their data and when they delete it, it is deleted on the FB servers. (I suppose. Although icloud and dropbox probably keep some records of this data as well.) A coder would be able to intuit that it's much easier to simply flag "deleted" accounts as invisible to other users and keep the data around. Also, using the term "delete" ends up (intentionally or unintentionally) misleading people to think that way, and the 'onerous' nature of deleting leads to a cognitive dissonance where users think that because they worked so hard to 'delete' their account, it was more likely to be actually deleted. This is part of a culture which is completely pervasive among tech companies of simply keeping all data around forever because until recently there has been zero reason not to, and you might need it later.
coss 9y ago
There's an emotional weight to having social media accounts open. There's a lingering thought of visiting them when they are active. When you delete them that weight eventually goes away. It's like getting clean of an addiction. Did you ever play a video game that you were addicted to? Same idea.

ModernMech 9y ago

> There's probably still a shadow account of the data you gave them. Let's hope not, for Zuck's sake, because he just testified in front of Congress that when you delete your account it's gone from Facebook's servers for good.

Phenomenit 9y ago
So do they delete your account in all of their backups as well?
- sdhgaiojfsa 9y ago
  Unlikely, although they do probably keep a listing of accounts not to restore. And of course you'll age out of their backups over time as well.
  - Phenomenit 9y ago
    Yeah but if they wanted to they could just restore the whole thing and ignore the list. I mean as long as you can't see them deleting everything from everywhere you can't be a 100%
    - misterhtmlcss 9y ago
      Legally (I believe) they can't delete an account, they can only hide it or deactivate it. There are rules around the data that go beyond Facebook. Think about it. Someone's told the cops I've been using threats using my Facebook account and I hear that and request the service be deleted. Poof it's all gone. Somehow I don't think that's allowed or does anyone think I'm not making a valid and likely assumption here? Then sure they delete YOUR data, but all the inferencial data such as which sites you clicked like on, which sites you signed into with Facebook, the type of commentary or information you share you made/shared isn't yours and the knowledge gained also isn't the users it's Facebook's so that'll all be there. So sure they won't have your face or name, but they'll know everything else about you that makes you you. Anyway most people don't even know that Facebook owns Instagram or WhatsApp, so no matter what they say unless they are tech savvy they have up at most an account on Facebook, but not it's subsidiaries (I believe).
      - TylerE 9y ago
        Messages from A to B are surely stored in the accounts of both A and B (Or more accurately probably stored in a side table referenced from both accounts). Anyway - I really doubt deleting a single account will delete the messages.

amptorn 9y ago

What percentage of Americans would you say know how to do those things, though?

hashkb 9y ago

I have an account but haven't used it in many years. People say my wall looks weird. I haven't seen it. No reason to delete it or log in at all, IMO. Just walk away.

derefr 9y ago

One difference: people who try to invite "you" (i.e. your Facebook profile) to events through Facebook will discover that you don't exist, rather than the event invitation just lingering in your now-abandoned inbox forever.

eertami 9y ago
What I did is turn on email notifications for event invites - I now find I never really goto the site unless an event pops up that I'm wanting to go to. Haven't really got an alternative and I don't want to be "that guy" but it's made Facebook usable for me.

kenning 9y ago

> I don't understand why go through the hassle of actually deleting (particularly since it is so onerous). It changes nothing. There's probably still a shadow account of the data you gave them. Deleting the account doesn't put everything back in pandora's box. I don't think most facebook users think this way. The big conflict in my experience with the FB scandal is that tech people understand that it's much easier to just keep data around than to track down and delete all of it, whereas users think about it differently. I believe users conceptualize their access to facebook to be like their access to icloud or dropbox, where they have direct control over their data and when they delete it, it is deleted on the FB servers. (I suppose. Although icloud and dropbox probably keep some records of this data as well.) A coder would be able to intuit that it's much easier to simply flag "deleted" accounts as invisible to other users and keep the data around. Also, using the term "delete" ends up (intentionally or unintentionally) misleading people to think that way, and the 'onerous' nature of deleting leads to a cognitive dissonance where users think that because they worked so hard to 'delete' their account, it was more likely to be actually deleted. This is part of a culture which is completely pervasive among tech companies of simply keeping all data around forever because until recently there has been zero reason not to, and you might need it later.

coss 9y ago

There's an emotional weight to having social media accounts open. There's a lingering thought of visiting them when they are active. When you delete them that weight eventually goes away. It's like getting clean of an addiction. Did you ever play a video game that you were addicted to? Same idea.