Yesterday, I deactivated my Facebook account after using it for 10 years. Of course there had to be a very solid reason; there was, indeed... their privacy policy. If you go through this page, you might consider pulling off as well.
Anyways, that's not what this blog post is about. What I learned from yesterday is that the so-called "deactivate" option on Facebook is nothing more than logging out. You can log in again without any additional step and resume from where you last left.
Since I really wanted to remove myself from Facebook as much as I can, I investigated ways to actually delete a Facebook account.
There's a plethora of blogs on the internet, which will tell you how you can simply remove Facebook account. But almost all of them will either tell you to use "deactivate" and "request delete" options. The problem with that is that Facebook still has a last reusable copy of your data. If you really want to be as safe from its surveillance as possible, then you have to leave your account in a useless state.
So, here are the steps:
1. Archive you data backup:
This step allows you to backup your entire data and save in your own storage for potential use in future.
Go to Settings > General > Download a copy of your Facebook data link. The "Start My Archive" will collect information from your profile and convert into a zip file. This will take some time; when your archive file is ready, you should see a notification like this:
Download and keep this file in a safe location, since it contains your sensitive data.
2. Remove all Apps from your account:
We often sign-up to several services using Facbook. For example, Instagram, Vimeo, Pinterest, Candy Crush, etc. You will have to delete these from your Facebook profile. You can change your sign-up options on particular services from Facebook to your email (for example LinkedIn), but some apps, which run solely on Facebook will have to be said farewell to. See, you already begin to sense how difficult it is to let go. 😎
If you've been using Facebook for long time like me, you'll be surprised to find how many apps were connected with your Facebook and how much information it has about you.
Go to Settings > Apps > Delete all Apps logged in from Facebook
After you've finished removing all the apps, your Apps page should appear like:
3. Disable Face Recognition:
This step is essential because even if you're not on Facebook, your friends may have tagged you and this information will also be available for Facebook.
Go to Settings > Face Recognition > Edit > Select "No"
4. Delete Mobile Number:
If you've provided your phone number, that should be deleted as well.
Go to Settings > Mobile > Remove from your account
Confirm with your password and your number will be removed.
5. Delete your Facebook Activities:
This is probably the lengthiest step, but highly recommended. What you'll be doing is basically delete/remove/unlike/unfriend/undo/unlike/privatize the below at least for the current year.
- Your posts
- Photos and videos
- Likes
- Reactions
- Comments
- Profile updates
- Friends
- Songs you've listened to
- Movies you've watched
- Articles you've read
- Games
- Books
- Youtube videos you've watched
- Searches (there's a clear all button)
6. Request Account Deletion:
This will delete your entire Facebook account, and is irreversible operation.
Go to Settings > General > Manage Accounts > Request Account Deletion
Facebook will ask a weird question that you want to delete your account after death. Facebook has an option similar to "Next to kin" in bank account forms, where you specify who controls your account after your death. If someone reports your death to Facebook, your account will be permanently deleted from Facebook and nobody will be able to view any of your activities ever.
7. Make your Account Non-recoverable:
You can do this easily by erasing all the ways to recover your account and changing your password to something you can never remember, and setting your primary email address to one you don't really use.
Go to Settings > Security and Login > Change Password
Enter your current password, and provide a new password generated from Random.org. And copy it somewhere temporarily, you'll need it to deactivate account.
Next, you'll have to change your primary email address for account recovery. Go to Settings > General > Contact Add new email address. You should put an email address you rarely open.
Entering new email address will email a confirmation code. Open it and confirm.
You'll notice your primary email changed to the one provided. Now you can remove the original email address from your Facebook.
8. Deactivate Account:
Lastly, go to Settings > General > Deactivate your account.
Mention the real reason you're deactivating your account. Mine is privacy concerns.
Now delete your temporarily copied password. And there you go. You are now as much more detached from Facebook than you would be using default options.
Enjoy life...
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