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Extra Technical Obstacles for Facebook Quitters

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Re: Extra Technical Obstacles for Facebook Quitters

#81

Post by stevenjohns »

badminton1 wrote: post #70
ino wrote: post #10

If you're in Europe and want to delete your fb account, wouldn't it be better to wait until GDPR activates, so your data actually gets erased instead of hidden? I'm going to erase quite a few accounts I'm no longer using on various services, I really hope they won't cheat.

Are e-residents (e.g: Estonia) protected by GDPR?

Was just about to ask this. I wonder if Estonian e-residents would have the same digital protections offered to EU residents, including the right to be forgotten[0].

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_to_be_forgotten#European...

Re: Extra Technical Obstacles for Facebook Quitters

#82

Post by illumin8 »

neffy wrote: post #66
camkego wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If we log on from the UK or another European company after the 25th and delete the account from there, will they apply the GDPR based deletion, where they actually delete the data?

Strictly it only applies to residents of the EU, how much attention companies will pay to that, is another matter. But given the risks associated with not deleting data, I suspect most companies will err on the side of safety.

Change your location to somewhere in the EU, then delete.

Re: Extra Technical Obstacles for Facebook Quitters

#83

Post by feelin_googley »

dang wrote: post #73
feelin_googley wrote: post #44

"I feel deeply personally responsible, because a lot of mistakes were made ," Sandberg said in an interview with Bloomberg. [ Dont feel bad. You are doing a fantastic job! ] "What we didn't do until recently and what we are doing now is just take a broader view looking to be more restrictive in ways data could be misused. We also didn't build our operations fast enough -- and that's on me," she added. ... Sandberg ad…

It looks like you've been posting dozens of these. Would you please stop? HN threads are for conversation, not copy-pasting.

And these two about Sandberg are the first ones that got downvoted. (But one of them just got upvoted, so... Touche Sandberg PR team. :)

The bracketed comments (so-called "commentary") are what drew the demerits I suspect, not the copy-paste. I apologise to anyone who was offended. No more sarcasm from me, and no more copy-paste, I promise.

Almost all other posts have gotten generous amounts of upvotes. None got downvotes.

HN has some ethical readers who are bolstering the faith I have in the future of the internet!

One post (the one about the story comparing FB to an engorged tick) got 98 upvotes.

Re: Extra Technical Obstacles for Facebook Quitters

#84

Post by conorcleary »

1812Overture wrote: post #80
WhitneyLand wrote: post #46

Cox, a major cable operator, allows you to sign up and add any services you want online. However, partially removing or cancelling services online is expressly forbidden. For example, if you wish to keep Internet service but cancel cable TV, a call is required. I know it’s a different process, but wanted to reilluminate the some of the measures taken against disconnecting a service in general. Once you do call, which…

My tactic is always to pretend to be an assistant doing it for my boss so I have no authority to do anything but cancel/downgrade etc.

Sometimes will backfire if you are not 'authorized' to even do that, by the service you are cancelling.

Re: Extra Technical Obstacles for Facebook Quitters

#85

Post by lgats »

lzy wrote: post #77
hcnews wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess fullwsj.com got shutdown because of recent facebook limitations. Does the twitter referrer still work for wsj.com?

Domain expired. Probably the owner felt it wasn't worth the annual registration fee to continue maintaining the service?

Didn't realize people were actually using it. Renewed now, sorry for the downtime. I welcome feedback if anyone has any recommendations on how to improve the service.

Re: Extra Technical Obstacles for Facebook Quitters

#86

Post by ams6110 »

WhitneyLand wrote: post #46

Cox, a major cable operator, allows you to sign up and add any services you want online. However, partially removing or cancelling services online is expressly forbidden. For example, if you wish to keep Internet service but cancel cable TV, a call is required. I know it’s a different process, but wanted to reilluminate the some of the measures taken against disconnecting a service in general. Once you do call, which…

Don't call. Go into the local customer service office. There you will talk to a real human being who is not making a lot of money and probably struggling to pay her own cable bill. She will be sympathetic. She will put you on the new customer discount plan, or cancel whatever you want without a lot of pushback.

Re: Extra Technical Obstacles for Facebook Quitters

#87

Post by zedgoat »

nxc18 wrote: post #12

I deleted my Facebook to the best of my ability about a week ago. Fun facts: * They switch around button colors to trick you into undoing your actions * They are very eager to log you back in if you, for example, try to access help. This reactivates your account. * You cannot delete your account on Messenger. They removed the option. Deleting your Facebook profile does not delete your messenger account * Their doc fo…

For messenger, at least if you're registered just in messenger with a phone number, you can "delete" it by re-installing the app and attempting to re-register with the same number. When it prompts you to use your existing account, say it's not you and then choose a new name.

This seems to reset your contacts and history. No idea what it looks like on the back end, assuming facebook is still rolling history associated with the number.

There used to also be a pathway to promote your messenger account to a full facebook account and then delete it that way, but it's been a while so not sure if that's still possible.

Not sure if you can pull of similar against email based accounts though.

Re: Extra Technical Obstacles for Facebook Quitters

#88

Post by eatinggrin »

I didn't delete my facebook. I unfriended everyone I knew. Took screenshots of the first pictures I saw when you googled my name as my pictures, then added random friends in other states I didn't know (not before re-filling all my data with fake data). Screw you facebook!

Re: Extra Technical Obstacles for Facebook Quitters

#89

Post by omerhj »

briandear wrote: post #55
sokoloff wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Blue Apron is the same way (easy sign-up online, cancellation on the website tells you to call this phone number). So for the last year, I've been typing in "Blue Apron" to google every couple of weeks, clicking on their paid ad, and skipping the next 5 weeks of deliveries. :)

The New York Times uses this cancellation process as well. I don’t feel bad about violating their paywall now after being forced to actually talk to a person to do something that should be enabled with a single click.

The NYT now has an option to cancel using a chat window -- and I'm pretty sure the operator that you're chatting with is a bot.

Re: Extra Technical Obstacles for Facebook Quitters

#90

Post by zedgoat »

jacquesm wrote: post #23

The quickest way to get an idea of the ethics of a company you are about to sign up with is to see how easy it is to delete your account. If that's not automatic and with only one confirmation whether or not you are sure and that you can't undo your deletion then you are best off not to give them your data in the first place. For all those FB users this is of course way too late, but maybe it will help some of you in…

Second this. I have a junk address I use to sign up first, and if there's no flow to self-terminate I won't signup.

I've had some services where I've wound up in a standoff in an intercom session, with the requirement that I justify the deletion or go through troubleshooting and customer support before being blessed with the right to remove my own account.

ExpressVPN stands out particularly, the rep resorted to insulting me over my knowledge of data security when I justified the deletion based on the fact they could one day leak or be sold, so I'd prefer to terminate unused credentials.

Particularly strong pattern with VPN providers, Crypto exchanges, etc.

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