How to permanently delete your Facebook account • Hacker News Board

Re: How to permanently delete your Facebook account

#251

Post by nepthar » Wed, Oct 06, 2021, 6:27 PM UTC

winternett wrote: post #182

xadhominemx wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> An unregulated private company asking you for official government documentation and your real name is definitely tracking you in my opinion. This is nothing unusual? It’s extremely common for a private company to request identify verification

Sure, for a dentist or doctor's visit, it's totally reasonable. But if you were asked for your ID every time you bought a burger at McDonalds, it would be considered suspect and a potential privacy invasion by most. The same is the case with social media. They don't need your government ID, and they're not authorized to demand it like the health care industry is.

> they're not authorized to demand it like the health care industry is.

There is no governing body that determines who is and who is not "authorized" to request ID in the United States.

Re: How to permanently delete your Facebook account

#252

Post by asdff » Wed, Oct 06, 2021, 6:27 PM UTC

hdhdbid1 wrote: post #220

ploum wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The fact is that working for a company is investing a lot of your time and energy to make this company more powerful. Your work count. Really. So your work should be as much as possible aligned with your moral values. Lot of people blind themselves with the salary and weak justification. I find that complete hypocrisy. Now, is the company you are working for aligned with your own moral values? Only you can answer tha…

Its funny, lot of the responses for this thread are investing my retirement money and profiting off it is fine, using products/services of such companies is fine, but working there, that's where I draw the line, that's just morally wrong. Its a lot of I'll draw the line where I want to and belittle others who do it differently.

It's not like people are going to their broker and saying "buy facebook" then going online and saying "ban facebook." Most people probably have no clue that their retirement indexes include like 1% facebook stock in the mix. With the way retirement funds are set up in this country you really don't have much choice in the investment mix unless you are savvy and with time on your hands to study and pick your own horses.

Using another example, I'm against war and violence too, but that doesn't make me a hypocrite for paying taxes that go on to buy bombs, and paying taxes that fund war is just not the same thing at all as me working for Blackwater directly.

Re: How to permanently delete your Facebook account

#253

Post by asdff » Wed, Oct 06, 2021, 6:31 PM UTC

dougmwne wrote: post #149

roydivision wrote: post #145

Most of the time tech companies have their fans and detractors. In virtually any discussion about tech companies, you’ll find people for the company in question, and others against, Apple and Google are great examples. I find it interesting that I don’t think I’ve ever come across any discussion about Facebook (and I read a lot of them) where anyone is defending them. Either people are strongly against the company, o…

I'll step into that role then. I am a member of some Facebook groups that have been hugely helpful on a personal level. The community page software may not be perfect, but it is accessible and can bring together a really heterogeneous user base with diverse perspectives, much more so than Reddit. The groups pages are entirely separate from the toxic feed. I would be absolutely bummed if they were to blink out of exis…

I was bummed too when fb blinked my community ran forums out of existence

Re: How to permanently delete your Facebook account

#254

Post by asdff » Wed, Oct 06, 2021, 6:35 PM UTC

raxxorrax wrote: post #109

haunter wrote: post #46

The irony here that it's harder to delete your HN account and all your comments

HN has anonymous accounts and personally identifiable information can be hidden or removed by the user, which to me has the same effect. HN complains to me that I cannot reset my pwd if I ever forget it because I didn't even share my mail. People often claim anonymous platforms are doomed to fail but I think social media is the main problem currently.

>removed by the user

Only within a certain timeframe. Unlike reddit eventually your comments are no longer deletable or editable by you, and you have to email the webmaster in this case to ask for an old comment to be manually deleted, its not even an automated mechanism.

Re: How to permanently delete your Facebook account

#255

Post by winternett » Wed, Oct 06, 2021, 6:38 PM UTC

nepthar wrote: post #251

winternett wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, for a dentist or doctor's visit, it's totally reasonable. But if you were asked for your ID every time you bought a burger at McDonalds, it would be considered suspect and a potential privacy invasion by most. The same is the case with social media. They don't need your government ID, and they're not authorized to demand it like the health care industry is.

> they're not authorized to demand it like the health care industry is. There is no governing body that determines who is and who is not "authorized" to request ID in the United States.

Yes there is... Congress does it regularly by creating and amending laws like HIPAA.

Re: How to permanently delete your Facebook account

#256

Post by winternett » Wed, Oct 06, 2021, 6:44 PM UTC

SavantIdiot wrote: post #239

winternett wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, for a dentist or doctor's visit, it's totally reasonable. But if you were asked for your ID every time you bought a burger at McDonalds, it would be considered suspect and a potential privacy invasion by most. The same is the case with social media. They don't need your government ID, and they're not authorized to demand it like the health care industry is.

We've already agreed in the TOU for our credit cards that the debtor/merchant is entitled to access to information about you from your credit card company. It is far more intrusive than government ID, yet people freak the fuck out about ID but swipe their VISA 10,000 times per second. This is how Scientology tracked me for almost three decades even after I changed addresses a dozen times. I bought something from them…

Credit Card industries are regulated by law, the laws are weak as well though, and also rarely enforced, so card companies can really push boundaries in secretive ways with privacy invasion anyway.

In contrast to social media, where there is not any substantial regulation yet, it's the wild west with your information right now... They can sell your phone number, anything saved on your phone, everything you post, and even possibly run a keylogger from their mobile app on your device...

Mobile (installed) apps can collect precise location data on you once you install their app... Credit card companies can potentially track you and gather personal data as well if you install their (native) mobile app. As phones evolve, it will eventually become normal to be tracked and to not be able to opt out if regulation (laws) aren't made and enforced to protect individuals from privacy invasion.

This is why I use web sites instead of installing single-use apps, but also why certain companies want to end support for browser based sites, and why some services can only accessed via installed apps.

Re: How to permanently delete your Facebook account

#257

Post by flipbrad » Wed, Oct 06, 2021, 6:49 PM UTC

dahart wrote: post #238

flipbrad wrote: post #221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're quite wrong. GDPR can apply to citizens in the US, and the link I posted shows the ICO enforcing it in their favour. SCL Elections Ltd was taken to court and then fined £15,000 for not complying with that US resident's request. https://ico.org.uk/about-the-ico/news-and-events/news-and-bl... I expect that US resident could also have brought a civil lawsuit, at least in UK courts, for damages. The EU and UK GDPR…

Yes it can apply to US citizens in certain cases, I thought I agreed with you on that, did I not? It’s still a fact that GDPR does not always (or even normally) apply to US residents doing business with US companies. UK courts have no authority over US companies operating only in the US with US residents who aren’t traveling abroad. Cambridge Analytica is a British company, that is why GDPR applies to them. So yes, I…

The part I most disagreed with is "GDPR is an EU law, it does not apply to US citizens living in the US". Yes it does, I provided an example. Your follow up is a lot closer to the mark.

Re: How to permanently delete your Facebook account

#258

Post by winternett » Wed, Oct 06, 2021, 6:51 PM UTC

rvnx wrote: post #210

winternett wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, for a dentist or doctor's visit, it's totally reasonable. But if you were asked for your ID every time you bought a burger at McDonalds, it would be considered suspect and a potential privacy invasion by most. The same is the case with social media. They don't need your government ID, and they're not authorized to demand it like the health care industry is.

It's called a loyalty card what you describe

Yes, they make a lot more money off of using and selling the data you create than what you save... And they also lay you off as a cashier and make you check out and bag your own groceries... the future is lookin bleak... lol

Re: How to permanently delete your Facebook account

#259

Post by winternett » Wed, Oct 06, 2021, 6:58 PM UTC

input_sh wrote: post #199

rubylark wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it? Maybe its my unconscious avoidance of industries with that practice, but the only other private corporation I can think of that has requested my ID is Costco. I can't think of a single software service or social media that has wanted my ID for anything. On the other hand, Facebook has never asked for my ID either, I assume because I have an old enough account that I was grandfathered in. Edit: I thought of two…

Oh I can think of many others: cryptocurrency exchanges, many payment providers, some server providers, Twitter (during verification), freelancing platforms (like Upwork) and even Pornhub. Sometimes it's a legal obligation (under KYC), sometimes it's pressure from credit card companies, and sometimes it's just websites making shit up to enforce their own rules.

Crypto exchanges do it because of mandated government income tax reporting requirements and potential for payment fraud (also a regulated industry).

Twitter requires ID and personal information (i.e. your phone number) for verification even from users that are not involved in any sort of purchasing or income scenarios.

Reddit started out not caring about who anyone was, but over time IP based tracking and other things started to creep in...

Private companies that aren't regulated nor involved in conducting regulated business should not be asking for any government issued ID nor personal user data if you ask me.

Re: How to permanently delete your Facebook account

#260

Post by naivsdaya » Wed, Oct 06, 2021, 6:59 PM UTC

asdff wrote: post #252

hdhdbid1 wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Its funny, lot of the responses for this thread are investing my retirement money and profiting off it is fine, using products/services of such companies is fine, but working there, that's where I draw the line, that's just morally wrong. Its a lot of I'll draw the line where I want to and belittle others who do it differently.

It's not like people are going to their broker and saying "buy facebook" then going online and saying "ban facebook." Most people probably have no clue that their retirement indexes include like 1% facebook stock in the mix. With the way retirement funds are set up in this country you really don't have much choice in the investment mix unless you are savvy and with time on your hands to study and pick your own horses…

Ok, let's agree that some of us have a moral position against x and are benefiting financially from x but are too busy or too ignorant to do anything about it.

And, lets also agree that being employed a company is bad, the argument still seems to breakdown soon enough. Generally, the engineers are to blame because they make enough money and could choose other options, but not others capacities of employment e.g. a driver, cleaning staff, cook at one of their food courts etc. at the same company. They could've found other options too if they really wanted. Should a person making minimum wage now look into a company and its moral decisions in the past/present before taking up a job. Generally seems to come down to, oh its wrong but beyond a $ amount (an arbitrary line I just drew for myself), which just seems a very inconsistent moral position to me. Well, if you still think its a reasonable position to say its wrong but when the benefit you reap is > $x, can one of you tell me above what $ amount do the moral values apply?