The main Facebook topic at the moment in the web industry (and for now some time too), apart from being the largest social network in the world, is the company’s lack of ethics, especially to its users. For that matter I invite you to read Dan Yoder’s post: Top Ten Reasons You should Quit Facebook. Yoder invoques the main reasons why Facebook should not be trusted, and why we should quit it.
This brings us to this post’s main topic: How can I delete PERMANENTLY my Facebook account?!
Have you ever seen a « delete your account » button/link anywhere on Facebook? Hmm, how bizarre. If one day you actually decide to delete your Facebook account, do you have any clue on where to start? Don’t laugh. You may think it’s a piece of cake but you actually have to dig quite a bit.
You’ll tell me that one simply needs to go to « account settings » and deactivate the account from there. But if you think your out, you are way wrong. Deactivating your account simply means that Facebook can still keeps records of all your profile information data, that your tagged pictures are still tagged and that if you login again, your account will be automatically reactivated with all your info intact (pictures, contacts, etc). Deactivating your account is just a scarier way of logging out.
So to permanently delete/erase/destroy your Facebook account follow my lead.
Step one: just login into your account. Easy enough so far.
Step two: Now this is where it gets tricky. On your Facebook page check the bottom right corner of your page and click Help Centre.
Step three: Still no sign of a « delete your account » link, but after going through a couple of options in the help centre menu you eventually get to Security parameter. Click it.
Step four: Now this is where I personally think the magic arrives. To find the holy graal you have to go to the Hacked account section. « Hacked account » as described by Facebook: « My account has been compromised, but it has not been phished nor affected by the money scam. » They could eventually add: « I want to delete my account ». But if it were that straightforward I wouldn’t be writing this post.
Step five: Your in the « Hacked account » page and at the bottom of the page menu you finally find some indication on how to delete your account. Click it and a text will scroll down. You are now just two steps closer to permanently deleting your Facebook account. Skip the part where Facebook lures you into deactivating your account, and click directly the here link.
Step 6: Finally after going trough a couple of links you are left with the final option: Submit or Cancel. Click submit and you’ll be permanently deleted from Facebook. Or so you think. A final message lets you know that your account will be officially erased after 14 days. So unless you want to go through all these steps again, don’t login into your Facebook account within the next 14 days you submitted for deletion or Facebook will gladly reactivate it.
On a personal note, I think Facebook is a fantastic tool, and if you adjust manually your privacy settings and don’t install too many applications that require to access all your personal infos, you should be relatively safe. I don’t intend to terminate my account any time soon, but if I witness a big trust breach from Facebook, I’ll strongly reconsider.
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