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DeleteFB: Selenium script to delete all of your Facebook wall posts

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Re: DeleteFB: Selenium script to delete all of your Facebook wall posts

#191

I don't trust the "delete" button to scrub it from FB's database. I'd be slightly more confident ( slightly ) that editing the post might cause the core data in the db to be updated, however. In which case, I think the more effective script would be one that goes through all of your FB posts and scrambles them, or replaces the text with gibberish.

I believe they keep a history of edits. They do for comments. The gibberish thing would be useless

Re: DeleteFB: Selenium script to delete all of your Facebook wall posts

#192
post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lots of people in this thread are claiming that it doesn't based on gut feeling, but consider: - Facebook publicly claims it does [1] - Mark Zuckerberg testified in-front of congress and stated they do [2] - Multiple government regulators have specifically checked that it does in their privacy audits. [3] They might be lying and actively conspiring to not delete it, but they'd have to have a very good reason to take…

Was the nature of deletion explicitly defined as "deleted records are removed from all databases, data warehouses included"? They technically wouldn't be lying if they only deleted the record from application systems, but retained it in historical data by simply setting a bit flag (eg "IsDeleted") to 1. The question about what motive they have comes down to whether or not the types of posts a person deletes indicate…

> eg "is_deleted"

FTFY

Re: DeleteFB: Selenium script to delete all of your Facebook wall posts

#193
post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lots of people in this thread are claiming that it doesn't based on gut feeling, but consider: - Facebook publicly claims it does [1] - Mark Zuckerberg testified in-front of congress and stated they do [2] - Multiple government regulators have specifically checked that it does in their privacy audits. [3] They might be lying and actively conspiring to not delete it, but they'd have to have a very good reason to take…

> Mark Zuckerberg testified in-front of congress and stated they do I just want to point out that "testified in-front of Congress" seems to have no relation to the truth of any statement. I don't recall the last time (if ever) there have been legal ramifications for lying in front of Congress. Zuckerberg also testified that shadow profiles don't exist and that users can always remove their personal information from F…

> I don't recall the last time (if ever) there have been legal ramifications for lying in front of Congress.

It's one of the reasons Cohen is in prison, isn't it?

Re: DeleteFB: Selenium script to delete all of your Facebook wall posts

#194

I don't trust the "delete" button to scrub it from FB's database. I'd be slightly more confident ( slightly ) that editing the post might cause the core data in the db to be updated, however. In which case, I think the more effective script would be one that goes through all of your FB posts and scrambles them, or replaces the text with gibberish.

I had deleted all my posts and photos. Even my profile photos. Then I disabled my account. After a year I enabled it back. Facebook used to prompt me to add some photos - both before disabling and after reenabling.

The eerie part? It used to show faded thumbnails of my photos that I had deleted more than a year ago in Photos section when prompting me to add my pics.

Re: DeleteFB: Selenium script to delete all of your Facebook wall posts

#195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The corpus of all of your posts are valuable for statistical analysis for ML models, sentiment analysis, and the like.

Isn’t that all to sell you ads?

For the general "you" yes, but not the specific "you". It would be possible to use your data to sell someone else ads.

Re: DeleteFB: Selenium script to delete all of your Facebook wall posts

#196
post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lots of people in this thread are claiming that it doesn't based on gut feeling, but consider: - Facebook publicly claims it does [1] - Mark Zuckerberg testified in-front of congress and stated they do [2] - Multiple government regulators have specifically checked that it does in their privacy audits. [3] They might be lying and actively conspiring to not delete it, but they'd have to have a very good reason to take…

>>> They "trust me" >>> Dumb fucks https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Mark_Zuckerberg

Not sure why you are downvoted - always good to remember. In many ways thats what he kept saying until last year, even to congress - just with nicer, politically more appropriate words.

Re: DeleteFB: Selenium script to delete all of your Facebook wall posts

#197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lots of people in this thread are claiming that it doesn't based on gut feeling, but consider: - Facebook publicly claims it does [1] - Mark Zuckerberg testified in-front of congress and stated they do [2] - Multiple government regulators have specifically checked that it does in their privacy audits. [3] They might be lying and actively conspiring to not delete it, but they'd have to have a very good reason to take…

>- Facebook makes money from your data by showing you ads. If you stop using facebook, you stop generating any revenue and your data becomes a liability, not an asset. This part at least is incorrect. Your data will always be an asset, and FB makes money not just by showing you ads but by selling your data.

They obviously exchange (precisely targeted) attention for money: https://www.facebook.com/adsmanager/creation

And they obviously give away some data for free, especially pertaining to users who click through OAuth consent screens as in the Cambridge Analytica case: https://developers.facebook.com/docs/graph-api

What are some examples of transactions where they exchanged data for money?

Re: DeleteFB: Selenium script to delete all of your Facebook wall posts

#198
post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>>> They "trust me" >>> Dumb fucks https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Mark_Zuckerberg

You'll no doubt soon be scolded for mentioning that quote, but it will continue to be relevant for as long as Zuckerberg's actions continue display that mentality. We'll soon have somebody telling us he said that years ago and people change, but the only thing that changed with Zuck is he became a bit more diplomatic and guarded with his language. Actions speak louder than words and Zuckerberg's actions speak clearly…

I used to be one of the scoldiers saying things like "oh all young nerds say dumb stuff when bragging to their friends"

Honestly the vibe's still there if you pay him/fb enough attention. I'm working on extracting myself completely from them (Still got a few group messages on upcoming events to clear)

Re: DeleteFB: Selenium script to delete all of your Facebook wall posts

#199
post #29

I wrote a similar tool in Node a while back that can delete by year and category: https://github.com/spieglt/fb-delete And one to download all "Photos of you", which Facebook doesn't include when downloading your data: https://github.com/spieglt/fb-photos

Seeing as we're sharing, here's my (previously posted to HN) effort:

https://github.com/Jaruzel/DeleteFacebookActivity

It works very well, but needs Windows.

Re: DeleteFB: Selenium script to delete all of your Facebook wall posts

#200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lots of people in this thread are claiming that it doesn't based on gut feeling, but consider: - Facebook publicly claims it does [1] - Mark Zuckerberg testified in-front of congress and stated they do [2] - Multiple government regulators have specifically checked that it does in their privacy audits. [3] They might be lying and actively conspiring to not delete it, but they'd have to have a very good reason to take…

>- Facebook makes money from your data by showing you ads. If you stop using facebook, you stop generating any revenue and your data becomes a liability, not an asset. This part at least is incorrect. Your data will always be an asset, and FB makes money not just by showing you ads but by selling your data.

Facebook cares about “your” data, but that doesn’t really mean your painstakingly edited review of the new avengers movie. It’s more what you spend time looking at, what you click on, etc.
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