4 ms·

I have some bad news for you, my friend. Your account has never been deleted and never will be. But thanks for finally quitting.

zimpenfish 2y ago
> Your account has never been deleted and never will be. Be interesting to see how they justify that under the GDPR regulations ("right to be forgotten") for European/UK users.
- ceejayoz 2y ago
  One of our EU devs tried to exercise his GDPR rights to be exempt from automated decision making (there was a clear app review bug; thousands of apps impacted at the time). It was quite impossible to do so.
- cozzyd 2y ago
  I'm a dual US/EU citizen. Can I use the GDPR?
ryandrake 2y ago
Serious question: If you never log back in, what does it matter if you have an account or not? An account I never use doesn't appear to have any affect on me.
- tshaddox 2y ago
  They’ve got: 1) your social connections as of your last usage of the account 2) your behavior profile from all across the web 3) potential ongoing new information about you based on the activity of your social connections
  - pesus 2y ago
    > your social connections as of your last usage of the account Would deleting all posts/friends before deleting the account make a difference?
    - _DeadFred_ 2y ago
      Wouldn't it be better to add a bunch of junk information/connections than make it look like you're doing a cleanup?
  - ryandrake 2y ago
    OK, so let's say I used a Facebook account 10 years ago (I didn't). And they know: Roughly (by IP geolocation) where I lived three homes ago, that I liked Fallout 3, and who three of my high school buddies were, none of whom do anything with me or live within 1000 miles of me. Now I no longer use Facebook or any of Meta's web sites. What can they do with this old-ass information (or even any accurate new information that they could magically derive from it), that would affect my life today?
- sophacles 2y ago
  There are some social ramifications. I haven't used my Facebook account in years. Around the holidays I happened to run into an old college buddy and we caught up a bit. It was great, but there was a bit of awkwardness around how he had been in town a couple times and hit me up on facebook to get together, but I had never responded... It's all good between us now that that has been cleared up, however I sure do wish that he didn't think I was blowing him off and he had known to try another contact method. We missed some good times together. It's not huge in the grand scheme of things, but it's something to consider.
  - spacechild1 2y ago
    Yes, it's better to just deactivate your FB account (and also Messenger).
- CamperBob2 2y ago
  Serious question: If you never log back in, what does it matter if you have an account or not? An account I never use doesn't appear to have any affect on me. By way of example, the Catholic Church holds enormous political power in the US by virtue of its claim to over 50 million members. When the Church speaks up, politicians sit up and take notes. Less than 25% of those members actually attend church weekly, but the others are still counted as "Catholics" because you have to go well out of your way to have yourself formally removed from the church membership rolls. [1] As of 2010 there is apparently no way to do that voluntarily at all. Facebook works the same way. Once you're in, your account is never truly closed or deleted AFAIK. (I've tried.) We may debate MAU versus other metrics for assessing user activity, but all the politicians see is "We have 3 billion accounts worldwide, over 250 million of them in the US." Like the church, Facebook is able to wield political power in your name even if you signed up many years ago and now disagree vehemently with everything they stand for. It seems that the only guaranteed way to avoid this sorry situation, short of changing your name or faking your death, is to refrain from signing up in the first place. 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formal_act_of_defection_from_the_Catholic_Church https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formal_act_of_defection_from_t...
  - LeafItAlone 2y ago
    >Less than 25% of those members actually attend church weekly, but the others are still counted as "Catholics" because you have to go well out of your way to have yourself formally removed from the church membership rolls. This only matters if people use the numbers that the Catholic Church tells them. The real reason people get counted as Catholic (or any religion or group) is because those people identify as Catholic on surveys and such. People in my social circle identify as Catholic while also not having been to a Mass in years outside of an invited event (e.g. wedding). So they would still get counted.
tzs 2y ago
What if you take a vacation to an EU country and while in that country submit a GDPR request to Facebook for data deletion? GDPR applies to data subjects who are "in the Union", regardless of residency or citizenship.
spongebobstoes 2y ago
That would be illegal. They do delete accounts and data.
- LeafItAlone 2y ago
  That must depend on the jurisdiction.

zimpenfish 2y ago

> Your account has never been deleted and never will be. Be interesting to see how they justify that under the GDPR regulations ("right to be forgotten") for European/UK users.

ceejayoz 2y ago
One of our EU devs tried to exercise his GDPR rights to be exempt from automated decision making (there was a clear app review bug; thousands of apps impacted at the time). It was quite impossible to do so.
cozzyd 2y ago
I'm a dual US/EU citizen. Can I use the GDPR?

ryandrake 2y ago

Serious question: If you never log back in, what does it matter if you have an account or not? An account I never use doesn't appear to have any affect on me.

tshaddox 2y ago
They’ve got: 1) your social connections as of your last usage of the account 2) your behavior profile from all across the web 3) potential ongoing new information about you based on the activity of your social connections
- pesus 2y ago
  > your social connections as of your last usage of the account Would deleting all posts/friends before deleting the account make a difference?
  - _DeadFred_ 2y ago
    Wouldn't it be better to add a bunch of junk information/connections than make it look like you're doing a cleanup?
- ryandrake 2y ago
  OK, so let's say I used a Facebook account 10 years ago (I didn't). And they know: Roughly (by IP geolocation) where I lived three homes ago, that I liked Fallout 3, and who three of my high school buddies were, none of whom do anything with me or live within 1000 miles of me. Now I no longer use Facebook or any of Meta's web sites. What can they do with this old-ass information (or even any accurate new information that they could magically derive from it), that would affect my life today?
sophacles 2y ago
There are some social ramifications. I haven't used my Facebook account in years. Around the holidays I happened to run into an old college buddy and we caught up a bit. It was great, but there was a bit of awkwardness around how he had been in town a couple times and hit me up on facebook to get together, but I had never responded... It's all good between us now that that has been cleared up, however I sure do wish that he didn't think I was blowing him off and he had known to try another contact method. We missed some good times together. It's not huge in the grand scheme of things, but it's something to consider.
- spacechild1 2y ago
  Yes, it's better to just deactivate your FB account (and also Messenger).
CamperBob2 2y ago
Serious question: If you never log back in, what does it matter if you have an account or not? An account I never use doesn't appear to have any affect on me. By way of example, the Catholic Church holds enormous political power in the US by virtue of its claim to over 50 million members. When the Church speaks up, politicians sit up and take notes. Less than 25% of those members actually attend church weekly, but the others are still counted as "Catholics" because you have to go well out of your way to have yourself formally removed from the church membership rolls. [1] As of 2010 there is apparently no way to do that voluntarily at all. Facebook works the same way. Once you're in, your account is never truly closed or deleted AFAIK. (I've tried.) We may debate MAU versus other metrics for assessing user activity, but all the politicians see is "We have 3 billion accounts worldwide, over 250 million of them in the US." Like the church, Facebook is able to wield political power in your name even if you signed up many years ago and now disagree vehemently with everything they stand for. It seems that the only guaranteed way to avoid this sorry situation, short of changing your name or faking your death, is to refrain from signing up in the first place. 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formal_act_of_defection_from_the_Catholic_Church https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formal_act_of_defection_from_t...
- LeafItAlone 2y ago
  >Less than 25% of those members actually attend church weekly, but the others are still counted as "Catholics" because you have to go well out of your way to have yourself formally removed from the church membership rolls. This only matters if people use the numbers that the Catholic Church tells them. The real reason people get counted as Catholic (or any religion or group) is because those people identify as Catholic on surveys and such. People in my social circle identify as Catholic while also not having been to a Mass in years outside of an invited event (e.g. wedding). So they would still get counted.

tzs 2y ago

What if you take a vacation to an EU country and while in that country submit a GDPR request to Facebook for data deletion? GDPR applies to data subjects who are "in the Union", regardless of residency or citizenship.

spongebobstoes 2y ago

That would be illegal. They do delete accounts and data.

LeafItAlone 2y ago
That must depend on the jurisdiction.