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How to permanently delete your Facebook account

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Re: How to permanently delete your Facebook account

#281

Post by cratermoon »

Nilithus wrote: post #280
fakedang wrote: post #276

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I tested this quite recently actually. I typed my Facebook password to login with all sorts of mistakes, although the core part of it remains the same, with some minor changes (all caps, a capital letter, an extra character, etc). In all cases the passwords were accepted. Which leads me to think that Facebook passwords might just be stored as searchable text rather than hashes. Granted I'm no cryptography expert thou…

This was talked about in another HN thread a few years ago https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13426544 It's not stored in searchable text rather they simply have some heuristics that they modify the password submitted and retry automatically.

Yikes.

Re: How to permanently delete your Facebook account

#282

Post by xadhominemx »

freebuju wrote: post #268
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

There is no legitimate reason for Facebook, or any other social media website, to require a copy of your ID other than for purposes of renting your authentic profile to advertisers.

There are plenty of good arguments for requiring people to use their actual identities on social media. You may think the downsides outweigh the advantages, but it’s absurd to say there is “no legitimate reason”

Re: How to permanently delete your Facebook account

#284

Post by freebuju »

xadhominemx wrote: post #282
freebuju wrote: post #268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is no legitimate reason for Facebook, or any other social media website, to require a copy of your ID other than for purposes of renting your authentic profile to advertisers.

There are plenty of good arguments for requiring people to use their actual identities on social media. You may think the downsides outweigh the advantages, but it’s absurd to say there is “no legitimate reason”

I don't think am being unreasonable. There is nothing stopping you or any user from consuming the product without proof of government ID. Besides social media networks get hacked all the time.

Re: How to permanently delete your Facebook account

#285

Post by fakedang »

Nilithus wrote: post #280
fakedang wrote: post #276

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I tested this quite recently actually. I typed my Facebook password to login with all sorts of mistakes, although the core part of it remains the same, with some minor changes (all caps, a capital letter, an extra character, etc). In all cases the passwords were accepted. Which leads me to think that Facebook passwords might just be stored as searchable text rather than hashes. Granted I'm no cryptography expert thou…

This was talked about in another HN thread a few years ago https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13426544 It's not stored in searchable text rather they simply have some heuristics that they modify the password submitted and retry automatically.

Thanks. That's a very interesting approach by them.

Re: How to permanently delete your Facebook account

#286

Post by woko »

xadhominemx wrote: post #282
freebuju wrote: post #268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is no legitimate reason for Facebook, or any other social media website, to require a copy of your ID other than for purposes of renting your authentic profile to advertisers.

There are plenty of good arguments for requiring people to use their actual identities on social media. You may think the downsides outweigh the advantages, but it’s absurd to say there is “no legitimate reason”

If you are a company whose business is advertisement, you should not get a free pass to *require* *unnecessary* personally identifiable information from your target audience.

There is no good argument for making it a *requirement*. If the platform has issues moderating its content, then there are solutions other than requiring their users to identify themselves. Plus, as we saw, asking for ID does not help fight against problematic content and its spread. The root of the problem may lie elsewhere, e.g. in the system which boosts user-generated content which draws clicks (clickbait) and likes (outrage and fake news). Asking for ID is only good for the targetted advertisement business, telling otherwise is a decoy.

Re: How to permanently delete your Facebook account

#287

Post by ploum »

hetspookjee wrote: post #277
naivsdaya wrote: post #236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So it is morally wrong but only above a $ amount? :) Anyway, the irony is interesting, some people on HN unable to control the urge to tell a stranger on the internet that he/she is morally inferior without considering how it makes them feel, while blaming another platform for similar effects and how it negatively impacts people.

No, you argued that people draw an arbitrary line regarding morals when working for evil corp vs consuming. I tried to indicate to you why that line isn’t so arbitrary as it indicates a factor of x100, or whatever exact number it is that is many times larger.

Also, really few people say "you should feel bad for doing it".

What they say is "I would feel bad for doing it".

Which is quite different.

Re: How to permanently delete your Facebook account

#288

Post by bborud »

quaintdev wrote: post #242
bborud wrote: post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Audits. (And yes, I've worked for companies that deal with lots of data that has strict retention limits by law, and oh boy were there audits and oh boy are you in trouble if/when you screw up) As for your proposed solution: I don't think I understand what you mean. Could you expand on it?

True audits are really good way to keep companies in check but what about a company like TikTok or companies in other countries where you are not sure if the audits are not compromised. Regarding the solution I was talking about check out Solid by Tim Berners Lee

Naturally you can only perform meaningful audits if you can have them performed by a party you trust and you have the ability to impose sanctions due to non-compliance.

That's not going to be true for all companies, but it will be true for many companies. Especially if they have any form of economic activity within some jurisdiction. Then it is up to the users to choose services that are under some acceptable regulatory control.

The fact that it can't be made perfect with one move doesn't matter. If things can incrementally be made better for the users whose data is used to generate immense revenue, that's a step in the right direction.

Decentralized models are interesting, but surprisingly hard to do, let alone do well. Not only from a technical point of view, but from a business point of view. There is also the challenge that just about every incumbent today has a vested interest in making sure these ideas do not get traction as it would rob them of what makes companies valuable.

Re: How to permanently delete your Facebook account

#289

Post by raxxorrax »

asdff wrote: post #254
raxxorrax wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

True. But the associated user might not be identifiable and I think you are free to edit any details here any time. You cannot really do much with raxxorrax or asdff.
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