Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/03/20/how-to-permanently-delete-your.html
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And how do you download an archive your posts before blowing all that content you’ve created away?
Not sure how it’s changed in the half a dozen years since I did this, but it’s really important not to interact with FB in any way at all during the time period right after executing this move (IIRC it was 14 days). This includes mobile device logins or any other apps that are using FB login. Any interaction whatsoever with your account will stop the termination process. Even something so simple as clicking on an FB icon on a website or clicking on a link to a FB page from somewhere else can trigger the account again, if you have automatic passwords saved in your browser. Best way is to just use private browsing, adblock, do-not-track, and wipe your cache every session, just to be sure you’re not accidentally reactivating the account.
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“You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave.” -Don Henley
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Alas Facebook will still have all your associated data, . And they can gather data on people that don’t use the service.
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Someone managed to create a Facebook account against one of my Gmail accounts. They used one simple trick to hide the activity: They created the account with the language set to Arabic, and since I never get/send emails in Arabic, Gmail directly routed the confirmation emails from Facebook to the spam folder.
Somehow they bypassed Facebook’s confirmation handshake to verify the account, how surprising.
After noticing the emails in the spam folder and realizing what was going on, deleting the account was easy. I told Facebook that I forgot my password, picked up the confirmation email and changed the password, changed the picture, set the personal description to “I am an idiot” and started the self-destruct countdown.
The hard part was navigating Facebook’s menus in Arabic (left-right flipped) to change it to English.
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Ask Cambridge Analytical, they likely know that.
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Now would be a really good time to check out of FB:
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is there any way to do this if facebook is holding one’s account (and data) hostage until one provides legal documentation that one is who one says one is?
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I’ve had a deactivated account for some time. I chose this route to keep access to messenger. Any way to delete an account and still use messenger?
But - how will I share pics of my kid with my mom and post vague complaints about my day?
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Done. What a relief.
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Why bother? If they think you’re a fake you, wouldn’t they exclude you from the data set? It’s only a problem if the real you shows up and starts posting under a fake name.
You can use messenger with a phone number. It doesn’t require a fb account.
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wouldn’t this require me opening an account first?
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"I’m sorry, Dave, but I can’t allow you to do that."
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There’s a reason I always refer to Facebook as the abusive relationship you just keep going back to.
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Worst breakup sex ever!
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i’ve always used a pseudonym on social media, one that does not match my legal name but that many people in real life actually know me by. apparently there was a complaint lodged that i am not who i say i am, causing a “lockout,” and while i’m not necessarily using a “fake” name, neither is it my real name, so i can’t prove anything by submitting legal documentation, which is absurd to begin with. thus my very real data is inaccessible to me, even for the purposes of deletion, but fully accessible to facebook or whoever they are sharing data with.
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Do you know what documentation they require? I wonder if you could have someone who knows you by both names sign a statement in front of a Notary Public?
