How to permanently delete a Facebook account
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How to permanently delete a Facebook account
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Re: How to permanently delete a Facebook account
#2pretty sure this is not a real full delete.
Probably just switches around the profile_status field:
0 - visible/default/active
1 - deactivated
2 - it is gone, really! I swear! crosses fingers
3 - suspended for tos abuse (we don't like you but your data might be valuable at some point)
edit: also to be fair:
4 - memorial mode
Re: How to permanently delete a Facebook account
#3At least I have the option to delete my FB account. On the other hand, Google has lately been aggressively pushing me to convert my YouTube account into a G+ account. Once this is actually forced upon me, is there any way to 'delete' my Google+ account without deleting my YouTube one?
Re: How to permanently delete a Facebook account
#4pretty sure this is not a real full delete. Probably just switches around the profile_status field: 0 - visible/default/active 1 - deactivated 2 - it is gone, really! I swear! crosses fingers 3 - suspended for tos abuse (we don't like you but your data might be valuable at some point) edit: also to be fair: 4 - memorial mode
I `deleted' my Facebook account a couple of years ago, but I have no doubt that all that old information is still floating around in a database on one of their servers.
Re: How to permanently delete a Facebook account
#5At least I have the option to delete my FB account. On the other hand, Google has lately been aggressively pushing me to convert my YouTube account into a G+ account. Once this is actually forced upon me, is there any way to 'delete' my Google+ account without deleting my YouTube one?
It seems so: https://plus.google.com/u/0/downgrade/
Re: How to permanently delete a Facebook account
#6pretty sure this is not a real full delete. Probably just switches around the profile_status field: 0 - visible/default/active 1 - deactivated 2 - it is gone, really! I swear! crosses fingers 3 - suspended for tos abuse (we don't like you but your data might be valuable at some point) edit: also to be fair: 4 - memorial mode
Coincidentally, Adam Hupp from FB spoke at HN London last night and he made a comment that when you permanently delete your facebook account, they do actually wipe all the data stored on you. In Europe at least, there are significant due diligence processes that they are legally required to follow in this regard.
Re: How to permanently delete a Facebook account
#7To all the skeptics in threads like these: asking that Facebook actually, entirely, erase all your data isn't a reasonable demand.
Unless, if course, you're also OK with Facebook's walled-garden, Facebook-is-the-Internet, Compuserve-wasn't-so-bad strategy.
Anyone who ever tried to delete content from the internet knows this: The Internet Archive has long since made a copy of what you're trying to delete. Anything you post on the internet, the real, open internet, is forever.
If you don't want that, then you'll need to accept that a single entity has full control over what happens with your content, locks it behind a log in so that it can't be easily mined, and does with it what it pleases.
I'm not willing to accept that. I'd rather that my content belongs to everybody than that it belongs to Facebook. But you can't have it both ways.
Re: How to permanently delete a Facebook account
#8pretty sure this is not a real full delete. Probably just switches around the profile_status field: 0 - visible/default/active 1 - deactivated 2 - it is gone, really! I swear! crosses fingers 3 - suspended for tos abuse (we don't like you but your data might be valuable at some point) edit: also to be fair: 4 - memorial mode
Coincidentally, Adam Hupp from FB spoke at HN London last night and he made a comment that when you permanently delete your facebook account, they do actually wipe all the data stored on you. In Europe at least, there are significant due diligence processes that they are legally required to follow in this regard.
I have zero trust in Facebook and probably would not even believe them if Mark swore on his mother that they perform a proper wipe of your private data.
With that in mind you shouldn't have a hard time understanding why it sounds to me as if they delete all copies on servers in the EU but US mirrors of your profile remain untouched. How else could their algorithm deduct that your ladyfriend used to be a man without analyzing old conversations from deleted profiles. Could you live in a world where facebook sells birth controll pills to former biological males.
Ok I admit it's a hyperbole/edge case but I know that you know what I mean ;)
Re: How to permanently delete a Facebook account
#9To all the skeptics in threads like these: asking that Facebook actually, entirely, erase all your data isn't a reasonable demand. Unless, if course, you're also OK with Facebook's walled-garden, Facebook-is-the-Internet, Compuserve-wasn't-so-bad strategy. Anyone who ever tried to delete content from the internet knows this: The Internet Archive has long since made a copy of what you're trying to delete. Anything you…
It's perfectly possible and reasonable to delete all of your data.
It's just hard.
We have to do this with our clients if they shift off our platform and believe me, it's not much fun deleting 20-100Gb datasets from a shared database with over 2000 tables in it on production kit.
But we do it, because we are honest.
Facebook are dishonest. Simple as.
Re: How to permanently delete a Facebook account
#10Worth adding, because it's not mentioned on the linked page:
When I deleted my account in 2010, there was a one month cooling off period, during which any sign-in would cancel the deletion request.
Perhaps that's sensible to catch malicious/accidental deletions, but I imagine it also makes it hard for Facebook addicts to leave.