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How to permanently delete your Facebook account

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Re: How to permanently delete your Facebook account

#131

Post by nobody9999 »

Nextgrid wrote: post #122
j2bax wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

//Imagine, you're living outside of USA/UK/Europe. Are you saying that Facebook doesn’t enable full account delete outside of countries that require it by law?

There's no reason to believe it's a "full" account delete even in the countries covered by the GDPR considering they brazenly breach the GDPR with their "consent" flow.

>There's no reason to believe it's a "full" account delete even in the countries covered by the GDPR considering they brazenly breach the GDPR with their "consent" flow.

Given FB's business model, and the fact that they create "shadow" profiles for folks who don't even have FB accounts, I have no doubt that while their UI might pretend that your account has been "deleted", all the data still exists for their use.

Which is why, when I left Facebook in 2014, rather than attempting to delete or disable the account, I posted a goodbye to those on FB that I cared about and explained exactly why I was leaving (their predatory and invasive business model).

I then logged out and haven't returned. I did this because I figured that any activity on their platform would be logged and stored with everything else they'd already collected.

And that was seven years ago. Given what we've seen from them since then, it's pretty clear that I was right.

Just go away and don't look back. Otherwise you'll just give them more data.

Re: How to permanently delete your Facebook account

#132

Post by ghego1 »

arkh wrote: post #118

So here is an idea about deleting accounts. Usually people may want to undo it sometime but if it's deleted it is deleted. One of the things required by the GDPR is a way to export your data and even import it (article 20, right to portability). So you should implement a way to do that. Then when users ask to delete their account, create an export, encrypt it with a one-time use key which you mail to the user, store…

Technically very smart solution, but legally way too risky.

If there's ever a breach, for example someone steals the key and then accesses the data, the fine will be super high given that the company has retrained data after the user asked to delete it.

To mitigate such risk, the company would at least need explicit consent of the user, at which point it's just as simply asking the user to not really delete their account.

A viable option, legally speaking, could be to send the dump to the user, in a way that can be easily imported back if the user ever wants to login again.

Re: How to permanently delete your Facebook account

#133

Post by nobody9999 »

jasode wrote: post #71
shadowfaxRodeo wrote: post #15

I got rid of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp about 4 years ago. Facebook and Instagram was easy, but people who have WhatsApp really think you’re weird for not having it. Deleting WhatsApp, while annoying for me personally, has resulted in many people I know joining Signal or Telegram — the network effect can be broken by being belligerent. If you don’t want to have a conversation about why you deleted WhatsApp, si…

>Deleting WhatsApp, [...], has resulted in many people I know joining Signal or Telegram — the network effect can be broken by being belligerent. This practical application of your advice depends on where a particular person sits in their social hierarchy . E.g. an influential person that's a "hub" or "connector" in their social circle can switch from WhatsApp to Signal ... or insist on email only ... or insist on no…

>being defiant by deleting WhatsApp doesn't accomplish anything because others don't care to switch to reach you.

I disagree. It accomplishes at least one thing -- WhatsApp isn't tracking/recording your messages any more. That's what I would care about.

Re: How to permanently delete your Facebook account

#134

Post by swamp-agr »

Nextgrid wrote: post #122
j2bax wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

//Imagine, you're living outside of USA/UK/Europe. Are you saying that Facebook doesn’t enable full account delete outside of countries that require it by law?

There's no reason to believe it's a "full" account delete even in the countries covered by the GDPR considering they brazenly breach the GDPR with their "consent" flow.

From data modelling point of view it's a challenge to wipe the user data since it will affect a social graph. And there're different strategies to handle corner cases (e.g. how to deal with reactions/replies on "deleted" comments or with reactions on your photos or your reactions on different news, mark as deleted and wipe the content or completely remove nested graph). And it actually makes user tracking much harder (please keep in mind, they're tracking users that have not register yet, in that case user profile might be converted from one user type to another if they are going to continue track you (why didn't want that?)).

It might be much easier to extend account entity with something like:

- is_deleted (boolean)

- deleted_time (utctime)

- is_suing_us (boolean)

- legal_case_id ...

Re: How to permanently delete your Facebook account

#135

Post by nobody9999 »

zaik wrote: post #106
unyttigfjelltol wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interoperability between these systems should be a public policy goal. I don't have to buy an AT&T phone anymore to call my friends; not sure why I have to buy iOS to chat with them.

What if we made a Internet Standard for messaging and presence?

>What if we made a Internet Standard for messaging and presence?

That's a wonderful idea. In fact, we've had such a standard since 1999 (protocol codified in 2004[0])

It's called XMPP[1]

[0] https://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc3920.txt

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XMPP

Re: How to permanently delete your Facebook account

#136

Post by Svperstar »

OJFord wrote: post #129
Le_Dook wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I live in Ireland. A while after GDPR came into effect, I went about deleted a Microsoft account I didn't use anymore. Deleted it on the site, contacted support to request all data be wiped. Done. About 3 years later I get an email that it was accessed and they disabled it for illegal activity. Deleted it in the site, contacted support to request all data be wiped. Honestly think it's more worthwhile to just change t…

I live in the UK, I tried to delete my PayPal account (that I never wanted to create, it came out of what I thought was a 'guest checkout' flow) and was repeatedly told I needed to provide PII that they didn't currently have in order to 'verify' my identity so they could delete it.

I got locked out of my PayPal, after 5 years of inactivity PayPal finally deleted the account themselves.

Re: How to permanently delete your Facebook account

#137

Post by quaintdev »

bborud wrote: post #7

I think it should be a legal requirement that users are able to configure retention of their data. For instance that any content you post will only be retained for N number of weeks/ months/years. And that social media platforms over a certain size have to agree to auditing to ensure that this data is actually deleted.

This argument is flawed. How can you be sure if the policy is enforced at back-end?

The better way is to create a solution where users have control over data and the apps interact with data. This should have been the model from the beginning but now I guess it will never happen. Even if someone successfully implements this it will be just as hard IPv6 to adopt if not more.

Re: How to permanently delete your Facebook account

#138

Post by nobody9999 »

lopis wrote: post #73
orangepanda wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Deleting WhatsApp, while annoying for me personally, has resulted in many people I know joining Signal or Telegram — the network effect can be broken by being belligerent. Network effect is irrelevant for pure messaging services. If someone needs to talk to you, they'll send a pigeon if they have to.

You underestimate the power of convenience. It doesn't bother me much, but I've lost friends because we couldn't keep in touch anywhere other than facebook and whatsapp. Eventually, anyone can stop needing to talk to you.

>You underestimate the power of convenience. It doesn't bother me much, but I've lost friends because we couldn't keep in touch anywhere other than facebook and whatsapp. Eventually, anyone can stop needing to talk to you.

Then I guess they weren't very good friends, were they? If they were, they might make an effort, no?

Re: How to permanently delete your Facebook account

#139

Post by nobody9999 »

cyberpsybin wrote: post #4

Unpopular opinion: Facebook is quite decent and gives sufficient controls over privacy to its users. Google on other hand is horrendous.

>Unpopular opinion: Facebook is quite decent and gives sufficient controls over privacy to its users. Google on other hand is horrendous.

I'm not concerned about which "friends" can see my posts, it's the platform hoovering up every keystroke.

Which in-app privacy controls can stop that?

Re: How to permanently delete your Facebook account

#140

Post by toyg »

OJFord wrote: post #129
Le_Dook wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I live in Ireland. A while after GDPR came into effect, I went about deleted a Microsoft account I didn't use anymore. Deleted it on the site, contacted support to request all data be wiped. Done. About 3 years later I get an email that it was accessed and they disabled it for illegal activity. Deleted it in the site, contacted support to request all data be wiped. Honestly think it's more worthwhile to just change t…

I live in the UK, I tried to delete my PayPal account (that I never wanted to create, it came out of what I thought was a 'guest checkout' flow) and was repeatedly told I needed to provide PII that they didn't currently have in order to 'verify' my identity so they could delete it.

Now even youtube wants your PII to "verify your age" for the silliest of videos.
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