MetalHead,

It's good to see that they're at least trying to clean up their act a little. I'm glad all the uproar raised by us forced them to change their policies a little (not enough yet though), so that you can get your account closed much more easily.

No worries about using my stuff, that's what it's there for.

Sorry khaled, I don't work for Facebook so I can't help you. Try emailing Facebook instead.

Well ns, not much we can do here since 1) most of us choose not to be on Facebook, and 2) none of us work for them.

It's a good example, though, of why you should never rely on Facebook to store all of your valuable stuff.

Hello,

I just found this sight in my effort to find info about deleting my son's FB account. In a post way up on this page, somebody said something along the lines of that the reason FB makes it difficult to erase your info is that it helps track pedophiles, etc.

The response was, "Nope, that's bullshit. It has nothing to do with tracking pedophiles or predators, especially on Facebook, which has an older crowd, than, say, Myspace."

Unfortunately, this is not completely true. My son, and a scary # of kids he goes to school with are 12, have lied about their age, and have registered themselves as part of a high school group. Not really understanding what FB was, I didn't make a big deal about it. At the time, it somehow didn't make it through my thick head that I was condoning lying. My son was so excited about FB because by the end of the evening his horizons had been dramatically broadened - lots of friends, etc.

In an effort to learn more, I created an account for myself, and invited him to be my friend. He remains my only one. I am seeing things that are clearly not intended for kids. The Bathroom Wall being the most recent. Not to mention the fact that I noticed today that our phone # is right on his profile for the world to see. A reverse phone # look-up provides our home address to the world. This is so scary. He sister is 9, and her name has been mentioned by others on his wall. The name of the school they attend is readily available. I feel like they and all of the other kids are sitting ducks.

I had a conversation with him about some of this a few days ago, but hadn't actually noticed yet that our phone # was on there. I am quite confident that when he is further educated, he will be "scared" into agreeing to delete his account. The tough thing is that all of those kids are blissfully unaware of what the big picture is with FB, and I know that my son will feel as though he is compromising himself socially. Anyway, if anyone has anything constructive to say or anything else I should know, I'd sure appreciate it. Please don't berate me for not being on top of what he is doing on the internet. The computer is very visible in our kitchen, and he told me what he was doing with FB. I (and he) simply didn't understand the reality of it.

Thank you.

Hi lucy,
I have two facebook accounts and I want both of them deleted. The first one I have had I dont know the password and i deleted that email i used for it a long time ago but I still can see it on facebook. Please help me and delete both.
thanks

http://www.facebook.com/help/contact.php?show_form=delete_account

once again...why did you guys leave your real information on ANY WEBSITE????!!!!....

Hey, as a FB hater/afficionado,

do you know if facebook officially "owns" all the data in the email you provided them with (username/id thing) .... this idea scares the shit out of me, more than my actualy facebook account. . . . . . . i have so many things in there......

thansk for asnwering.. no one else really knows.

Simple solution... don't give out your private data. Gave it away of your own free choice and then whine when it's out there for the world to see. Get a clue people, once something is out there on the internet it is essentially there FOREVER. Sure they could delete it but that's not so say there aren't already thousands of cached versions out there which are completely out of their control.

Oh wow! How fun is this page!

I have just deactivated my FB account and I was wondering why I did it....So I decided to google "Why I left facebook" to see what others had to say and behold I got in here. Been reading for about half an hour and now I'm just wishing I never bothered with FB in the first place.

Oh well...I dunno what to do next...I'll just wait for the free-flow-of-information bomb to explode and then pick up the pieces...in the meantime I'll try hard to divorce my mind's nagging convictions about the truth this page has provided from my day-to-day life. All in the hope that I can carry on in sound-proofed indifference...or whatever..lol....

Somebody please bring back April 12th so I can stop myself from joining the Stalinist website called facebook!!!!

@Shawn McKay, Tanja: The only way to get your undeletable account problem sorted out is by contacting Facebook directly. Hope you got everything fixed.

@PreciousLife, ???, Fred Flinstone:

[But] why did you not think about this as an issue before you made public so much of yourself?

I'm not arguing about how public we choose to make ourselves and our identities. The data we put out there on the web is, by definition, open - my gripe lies with being subversively usurped from being in control of our own data and content, and relinquishing that ownership to Facebook and other organizations.

@PK: Did you successfully get your account deleted?

@Incognito1: Not sure what you mean. They don't own anything in your email account of course.

@Incognito2:

I don't like thinking that we've been debased into automatons

Same here. The commodification of our personal relationships is one of the great tragedies going on right now, and [almost] no one seems to give a shit.

@Le Pew: Stalinist? Don't you mean Fascist?

@Spyko: Don't do it man!

Hi Diana,

You're right; you don't have much recourse when people post stuff - like photos of you - on Facebook. Whether or not you're still on Facebook doesn't matter either, because there's no way to know exactly what content of you is floating around within Facebook.

Try contacting them directly to ask them if they can automatically delete your profile for starters.

Sorry incognito, I have no idea.

hi dear
my acount on facebook is disable by admin and i cant p[en it what i can do plz i need ur helping plz

You raise a really good point. About a month ago, I was having a discussion with a group of friends about Facebook privacy. Among this group of friends are people who know one of the top original developers of Facebook quite well, and others of us have friends working at Google, which is known for its extremely stringent confidentiality policies toward their employees.

It came up in the conversation that Facebook does in fact keep a cache of all deleted info (that you have since removed from your profile, i.e old "versions" of your profile) on their servers, much the way Google Search does.

Furthermore, at that point in time, Facebook and Google were in the middle of talks for Google to buy this cache of old information stored on the Facebook servers from Facebook.

I don't know what became of this. Although I personally did not hear this information from someone directly affiliated with Google or Facebook, I know who my friends' source on the Facebook side is, and I think this source is very reliable. And all this stuff really does freak me out.

That isn't *really* why you're on Facebook. -They only want you to think that. If those people from, like, ten years ago are so important to you, you'll send them an email, call them, or low and behold, send a letter with photos that they can put up on their fridge. It's a popularity contest. The same one you had in high school, only now you're showing off your diamond ring or your newborn instead of your Guess? jeans. I had a long discussion on "social" networking the other day with a therapist, and got the same story, especially with Facebook and others that send a cute little announcement to all of your friends when you have any "social" activity on your page. It's Sheila telling Johnny in the cafeteria: "Guess who Sarah's seeing now?". Sitting in front of your computer is anti-social, not social. Read Farenheit 451. Facebook and others like it are the family on the wall.
Thanks for posting this. I deactivated (I think they do this because they know it's addictive, and that people will jones to return) mine a while ago, after it destroyed my relationship. (I'm in my late 30's by the way. Pathetic.) Now I guess I need to take more steps.

Hi, I have a question regarding this:

http://www.new.facebook.com/help/contact.php?show_form=delete_account

would this mean everything is erased? EVERYTHING?

When I click that link, incognito, I don't see anything about deleting accounts - just a generic contact page. Maybe you need to be logged in to see it?

i never work with facebook i think this is not so intresting and i dont have many expirence with this
http://www.keyeagle.com

Great post, wonderful comments. Really interesting to follow the life of this thread over more than a year (that's pretty amazing longevity in an internet age of fire-and-forget). Facebook was useful to track down a couple of old acquaintances overseas that I genuinely wanted to get back in touch with and had had no luck finding anywhere else -- but now that I "have" them in my rolodex again (how quaint!) I have little reason to "interact" with them via FB. I send them email directly, we talk on the phone -- and we meet up whenever we can... fancy that, old school social networking. Call me ancient, but I prefer it.

I've had a pretty minimal FB account for a couple of years, and never really did "get" what the whole Wall, poke, game thing was about -- struck me as a weirdly plastic and inferior substitute for, you know, actually interacting with people.

FACEBOOK SUCKS!

I found this while searching on how to find a deleted video once posted on FB. Let's just say that the video was not complimentary. The poster said he/she deleted it. Meanwhile, anyone who is a friend to poster could have seen the video while it was up, copied and kept or passed it on. Is it possible to find out if FB still has this somewhere? Thanks.

Steven,

Thanks I appreciate you taking the time to respond. Belive me, if it were my choice the video never would have been made, let alone saved or posted anywhere. It came from some disgruntled students with a score to settle against a staff member. Unfortunately, no one copied it when they viewed the vile video. If it had been directed at me, I would be persuing this in a much more vehement manner. As it is, other personnel are saying "kids will be kids" and they have done their punishment. Yeah. But thanks I do appreciate the info.

Hi Steven, thanks a lot for your post, its very helpful! Just one question, you're saying you have to delete every comment you've ever made. Is there any way to have all the comments I've made anywhere (pictures, walls, etc) displayed in one place, or do I have to look through my friends' profiles one-by-one to find every(!) picture, etc I've ever commented? Oh god, I don't even remember where I have ever commented, there were groups I used to be a member of and then left, how can I find posts I made there? Your response will be soooo apreciated!!!

lol
2 days ago , i have uploaded photo on facebook , and delete it

i kept da link before that

the photo still in the facebook

I felt the need to comment on this page, although I don’t normally take part in these things (rather than reading them and mumbling to myself) Anyways, I really enjoyed this posting because it really stirs up my soup. Let me explain…

When Facebook came out into popularity, like everyone else I received never-ending email requests from friends suggesting that I check it out. I attempted to not take part in the “new thing”, but after about 3 months of persuasion I decided to join it and see what all the excitement was about.

When joining I decided that I would not share the type of information that some have a tendency to do on Facebook because I found it astonishing what you could find out about someone online, I did not want to be part of that.

Long story short, I have been on Facebook for about a year now... On a regular basis I delete comments that are placed on my wall, and do not add applications that tend to get nasty such as super wall etc...

When I went to my account today to look at my profile I clicked the show more posts link and to my dismay there was posts that I have individually deleted, I seen posts all the way back from the first day I joined Facebook!

I have been deleting them one by one and now Facebook is not showing them to me although I have not deleted them all, I am not impressed. Not that there is bad things on the wall but I have ALREADY deleted them!

I do Anti-Cyberbully presentations around my city to enlighten students about their online privacy and how to deal with things such as cyber-bullying, cyber-stalking etc... I am absolutely revolted with Facebook.

I honestly feel that the major thing to do is to educate people especially our young so that they are aware of the types of things that can happen using applications such as Facebook, I am glad to say that I have helped many children so far in this respect and I will continue to.

Thank you for the good quality read...

Mamalicious,

Thanks for your comment. Your experience seems to mirror a lot of other folks'. The underlying premise about Facebook's privacy problems extends past what you could "find out about someone" online, but that you can't see what information of yourself is up on the network, without actually becoming a member. So not only is there the main issue of what someone could find out about you, but that you can't even see what information about you is out there.

You're also right that this is more about education - especially youth education - than specifically targeting any one social network. It's easy to use Facebook as a scapegoat. It's more difficult to get young people to understand why protecting their personal data is important.

Maybe because you don't live in the US. Trust me tho.. your secrets aren't secrets.. Should I give you a call?

After a short talk with Steven, I agree. Some people aren't aware how much of there personal info is being shared online and education for our younger generations 18 and under I mean is needed. But some of that needs to fall on the parents as well. I choose to be open with just about everything because hey.. If someone can call steven after a 5 sec search then why should I try to hide.

Okay so I have read most of the posts on here, may have missed one or two, but I think I may have found the facebook loophole to having information deleted by facebook ASAP. Let me know if this sounds right.... I found in the privacy policy this following statement:

No one under age 13 may provide any personal information to or on Facebook. In the event that we learn that we have collected personal information from a child under age 13 without verification of parental consent, we will delete that information as quickly as possible. If you believe that we might have any information from or about a child under 13, please contact us at privacy@facebook.com.

So I am guessing if you contact facebook, let them know u have just found your son/daughter going under an alias (your account - ok so u are pretending to be your own mother/father) that u aren't happy and u want the info deleted instantly due to privacy...

Not sure if this has been mentioned previously, or if it would work, but according to their policy i am guessing it could.
Good luck all xx

HAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHHAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

What happened to this Steve? He looks, dare I say, hipster?

Anyway, incognito + his picture are absolutely hilarious.

PS. I want pizza...

This is freaking hilarious. I have many friends who "stay off the radar" for their own reasons. I used to think they were kooky, but after reading all of this, I think they may have more insight than I gave them credit for.

"Facebook ruined my life" That's my new motto!

Simple, dont join facebook in the first place you frigging losers. Get a real life with REAL friends.

Steve,
I found all of your comments very entertaining and informative. Thanks for the info. Good to know. Additionally, you are hot man !

I guess I don't see the big deal. If you put stuff out on the internet via ANYTHING, it's public domain, no matter how "private" you think your page is. I've never seen a bigger bunch of whiners about privacy, when said whiners put themselves into the positions they're in. If you were THAT worried about privacy you wouldn't have signed up for a facebook, myspace, whatever account in the first place. Yes facebook should make it simple instead of making you jump through hoops to delete an account, but big freakin deal if your account isn't deleted. Again, if you were THAT worried about privacy, you wouldn't have signed up in the first place. I just don't understand it, seriously.

If you don't want your activities known, do not use the internet. Simple as that. In this day and age there's not many people out there who don't know that everything can be traced. So if you're afraid of that, sell your computer and call it a day. I don't know what else to tell you.

Now I am paranoid about my Google checkout account, although I do receive a teeny tiny discount. I guess they are paying me to give them permission to spy.

People don't realize how powerful this incriminating stuff on the internet can be. I have seen people lose jobs because of what they have posted on social networking sites.

Let's say you witness a crime and you are called to testify agains the perp. The defense attorney looks up your FB or Myspace page and uses information to erode your credibility with the jury. The perp walks because you joined a FB group called, "Lying Liars and Those Who Love Lying."

or

You become a whistleblower regarding illegal government activities. Everything you've ever said or posted on FB is fair game. All forms of social dissent are completely quashed because everyone is afraid of being publically humiliated because their ex girl/boy friend posted unflattering information/pics on FB or other sites. The people no longer have control over their government. (Not that we do now, really, but...)

Look what happened to Levi Johnston, the guy who knocked up Sarah Palin's kid, when the contents of his social networking profile became public. I felt bad for him.

I saw some statistic recently that said a large percentage of teens on Myspace have information on their profiles admitting to some sort of illegal activity, such as drug use.

Instant loss of credibility when one is involved in the legal system as a witness or as a party to a lawsuit. Think about that!

hah, The CEO is a 23 year old guy who by the looks of him, was probably picked on a lot in school....As a computer geek, this is probably his way of attaining power and control over all the "jerks" in life, (bwah hahaha). Who but someone who had no social life would create something that enables all the "lurker's/cyber stalkers" out there to see what all the cool kids are really up to! (I'm only sort of joking here) So I'm willing to bet it's more than likely not a "can't" issue, but a "won't" issue from the top down. What's the saying.."Geeks shall inherit the earth!"???

I don't know, I see your point about privacy, etc. But the reality is, most of us just aren't that interesting...I don't see who is going to care about my information. Obviously, I'd never put my address, ss# or credit cards on there.

I'm with Jaquan on this one, everything was just great with facebook until you realized that you willingly put your info out there and now all of a sudden cant get it all back. I recall a children's story that goes somewhat like this: A person said mean things about another, in the end she wanted to take it back, she goes to the wiseman in the village and he tells her to take a handful of feathers and toss them in the wind and come back 3 days later. She does so and then he tells her to gather the feathers again. She comes back disappointed because she cannot find all of the feathers. The wise man tells her of course not, you can no more bring back hurtful words than you can feathers from the wind.

Maybe you had never heard this story but it directly applies to you. You scattered your info like so many feathers and now you complain that the internet wont give them all back. Everyone that complains about facebook not letting them delete things or are worried about the privacy of the things they put on there should THINK before they post. I have a facebook account and I dont necessarily spend hours thinking about how everything I post will look to anyone I could possibly meet, but I will say that I am not ashamed of anything I have on there about me.

Ok, I will try to reply to most of your questions and comments so far here:

Incognito #1 wrote:

So I am guessing if you contact facebook, let them know u have just found your son/daughter going under an alias (your account - ok so u are pretending to be your own mother/father) that u aren't happy and u want the info deleted instantly due to privacy...

Sure, they might close your account if they suspect that a minor was using it, but there is no way to know whether they really deleted all your content or if they're hanging on to it. But really, do we need to resort to impersonating a child in order to get a simple account closed? Don't answer that.

Incognito #2 wrote:

"Um yeah, I provide support for customers that have issues with the uploading of pictures on Myspace" And this gets you out of bed in the morning? F-King losers. During this economic downturn, take a look and introspect yourself to see if what you do helps you, or anyone else. I mean real help, not "Is this good for the company". And if not, just shoot yourself because your taking up valuable airtime.

Nice rant - I share the sentiment. We live in a pretty crappy generation where people assign themselves worth because of the company they happen to work for.

Ayman M. wrote:

My account has been disabled 7 days ago, and till now i'm not getting any
reply, from facebook team
My login is : ayman@lebsol.com

is there any one here can help me to get my account back,
coz i have business there and i don't want to lost it

Sorry Ayman, I don't work for facebook so i can't help you with that.

IB wrote:

This is freaking hilarious. I have many friends who "stay off the radar" for their own reasons. I used to think they were kooky, but after reading all of this, I think they may have more insight than I gave them credit for.

"Facebook ruined my life" That's my new motto!

I don't stay off the radar all that much - I just prefer to stay in control of the radar station as much as possible.

"Facebook ruined my dinner" would be an awesome name for a hipster indie rock band.

Jeff wrote:

4. Click the “I want to permanently delete my account” link toward the bottom of the page. Please keep in mind that once your account is deleted, you will not be able to reactivate the account or retrieve any of the content or information you have added.

Thanks Jeff - but will this permanently erase all the content associated with the deleted account as well?

Incognito #3 wrote:

Simple, dont join facebook in the first place you frigging losers. Get a real life with REAL friends.

Heh, I agree that for most people, Facebook isn't worth the effort they put into it, and that social networks in general are a big waste of time - for me. But for those who choose to use the service, it's worth thinking about how to improve the protection of their own privacy, even if I'm not on it. These things will continue to surface and it's all about making sure that the precedents we set now are the right ones we want for the future.

Incognito #4 wrote:

The way you present yourself reminds me of my husband! Get my sh*t off the f*cking website or else! LOL

I've got my shit spread on different website all over the internet - that's not my problem. I'm more concerned with being informed about how it gets used and shared without my consent, and that's where Facebook falls flat. Your husband sounds like a cool dude!

Melanie wrote:

I guess I don't see the big deal. If you put stuff out on the internet via ANYTHING, it's public domain, no matter how "private" you think your page is.

I think I know what you mean, but your use of the term "public domain" is ambiguous in this case. If you're saying that "anything uploaded to the internet can be accessed by anyone", then fine - but you're missing the point, Melanie. Sure, anything on this here blog is accessible by anyone, on my own terms. However, things on Facebook are not accessible to me because I'm not a member, because they've managed to build this walled garden where people can feel safe about sending up their content and making it only accessible by their friends, and not the public... except that it's far more than your friends who have access to it.

If you were THAT worried about privacy you wouldn't have signed up for a facebook, myspace, whatever account in the first place. Yes facebook should make it simple instead of making you jump through hoops to delete an account, but big freakin deal if your account isn't deleted. Again, if you were THAT worried about privacy, you wouldn't have signed up in the first place. I just don't understand it, seriously.

Not everyone knows better, and most people - myself included - just signed on because "all our friends were on it". It *is* a big deal if your account isn't deleted, and the fact that Facebook didn't make this clear at registration doesn't speak well for what they intend to do with the data. I don't understand what you don't understand, seriously.

If you don't want your activities known, do not use the internet. Simple as that. In this day and age there's not many people out there who don't know that everything can be traced. So if you're afraid of that, sell your computer and call it a day. I don't know what else to tell you.

Sure Melanie. If you don't want your activities know, don't go to work. Don't visit friends. Hell, don't even step out of your house. Arguments like that are very fatalist and passive. What is wrong with educating people about their rights and illuminating deficiencies in the system in the hopes of fixing things?

RW42 wrote:

You become a whistleblower regarding illegal government activities. Everything you've ever said or posted on FB is fair game. All forms of social dissent are completely quashed because everyone is afraid of being publically humiliated because their ex girl/boy friend posted unflattering information/pics on FB or other sites. The people no longer have control over their government. (Not that we do now, really, but...)

Sure - remember that credibility is always just a lack of available incriminating data. I have lots of potentially incriminating information about myself spread around the internet, but the difference is that I'm aware of it. Kids post things to facebook that they think only their friends will see, blissfully unaware that 10 or 20 years down the line it will be used against them if it needs to be. Again, it's the illusion of privacy controls that Facebook offers that I have a problem with.

Yazan wrote:

I find your article very interesting. Although i havent understood why you would want to leave facebook. And another thing that tackeled me is that what could they use your information for? They cant really do much.
For instance, Yaay the know my name,, Yaay they know I am a fan of lewis hamilton,,
But do they really give a shit? Ok maybe they saw a picture of you and a couple
of your friends. How can they use your information to their value?
I heard, when you apply to some colleges, they immeidietly log in to facebook,
and check if you have one, and look for valuble information. But still, how much
value can they make of you being a fan of this guy, and a pic of you and a couple
of friends, and finding out what kind of music you like.

1) What do you get out of adding these "friends" on Facebook? Does it help you feel cooler?

2) They could do a lot with your information, Yazan, especially the way it's structured on Facebook. Say one day, one of your Facebook friends whose wall you write back and forth on goes and does something stupid and is arrested. Then a few months later you get bored of Facebook and decide to stop using it. Then 5 years later you apply for a job, and they look you up on Facebook only to find that you were friends with this dude 5 years ago - guess what? That doesn't reflect well on you.

That's a pretty lame example, but don't underestimate the value of the sum of little bits of information about you that might seem insignificant at first.

ana wrote:

But the reality is, most of us just aren't that interesting...I don't see who is going to care about my information. Obviously, I'd never put my address, ss# or credit cards on there.

See above re: value of information. Facebook collects things like location, your interpersonal relationships (what's more valuable than that, really?), political views, groups you belong to... with even a fraction of this stuff you can build quite a complete profile on anyone. And I'm sure you're very interesting!

Jaquan wrote:

How about you read the user agreement before you actually use the service there genius. Your just mad cause they out smarted you. You clicked agreed and now your pissed cause you agreed. You dont tell someone how to ruin there service dumbass, they will run it how they want. Your just a bitch. If you dont want to have your personal info up then dont put it up in the first time and deal with the one by one deleting, you agreed to it jackass.

Whoa there skipper - I had a hard time reading your comment because of the typos / bad english / lack of structure. It sounds like you're the one who's mad - I was just pointing out how silly it was that Facebook makes you do all this to close an account. Aaaaaaand... I'm done replying to someone who doesn't know the difference between "your" and "you're".

Now that's maddening!

Perhaps more people should be activating FaceBook accounts that give totally false information about themselves and changing their email contact address to president@whitehouse.com.

Melanie, you are wise. The best comment I've seen here (I haven't read all of them, though). Most of these people seem to spend a majority of their time indoors, on the computer, safe from most of the bad things they imagine may happen due to their nonsense posted on all of these juvenile 'spaces' and 'faces' places. My attitude is this; go outside, do something that doesn't require high thought (or spelling). For example, go to the local Salvation Army and serve food once in a while. Go to a nursing home and challenge all comers to a cribbage tournament. DO SOMETHING fer christ's sake! Others have said it and I concur; "what a bunch of whiners!!!). Geez, allright I'll answer the math question straight.

I use so many fake names and have so many "fake" email adressess, Ive forgotten who I really am.......so I guess privacy isnt an issue. Oh, and its kind of ironic that a post warning about lack of privacy of one site, requires me to give an email address and name...life is just full of delicious moments...

It goes a lot deeper than just facebook...

http://www.encrypt-the-planet.com/optout.htm

...And they did link here. I closed my Facebook after reading all this. Thanks for the info! Now all I need to do is concentrate on all the others from that link. What a mess.

Hey nice article and thanks for speaking out against the corporate fascists. I was wondering if you came across this problem: Several years ago I created a facebook profile with my college email address which was a requirement back in the day. For reasons unknown I was unable to log back in ever, so I used it maybe once or twice. Now at least four years later I created a new account with a different email which is a no no to facebook. After checking up on some long lost 'friends' I discovered that my old facebook profile is still there collecting dust and since I can't log in with my old college email, I can't even deactivate it! It just sits there suspended in time. I've sent around four or five emails so far with no luck. I think it will be there forever unless maybe I can break into their headquarters, hack their mainframe, and/or just burn the place down (j/k) but it seems reasonable compared to sending emails to 'Marc' of user operations of facebook. Anyone out there know of a remedy. I guess I could file a lawsuit.

since andy warhol said: "Everyone will be famous for 15 minutes", facebook provide a chance for everyone to, on so many levels, expose themselves to the world. it's frigtening.
I am on facebook, don't want to sound hipocrit, but I hate exibitionism that facebook, more than every other site, makes posible.
It was fun at the beginning, it's sad now (and, did I mentioned frigtening).
anyway, you made me laugh, and i think you are right .

and sorry for my englis, it's not so good.

Duey..Just wondering why the fuck would you stay on facebook just beacuse you want to talk to people that you saw like 10 years ago??...Dude you should seriously get a life and meet some new friends instead of clinging on to the past!...It makes no sense at all!!!!

The only social network I belong to are the friends I meet with for lunch.

That's the only kind you need.

Oh, and its kind of ironic that a post warning about lack of privacy of one site, requires me to give an email address and name.

You're not required to give anything. Stay anonymous and give a fake email address - unlike on Facebook, your lack of disclosure doesn't prevent from commenting on my blog.

Ah this is the United States of who gives a shit man. I joined facebook nation just like everyone else.

That already says so much about it, doesn't it?

Hi there,

Enjoyed reading about your battle to leave Facebook. I have just done so, seems they have now updated the way it works and you can PERMANENTLY delete your account at the click of a button. I got a message saying that the process would take 14 days, if I log in in the meantime it will cancel the deletion process. However, I don't trust the people at Facebook, and I have come across a couple of users saying they had permanently deleted their accounts but posts still remained on their friends' walls etc. Do you know anything about this? Now I'm thinking I might have to log back in and manually delete everything before I "permanently delete" my account again. I tell you, I would never have signed up for Facebook in the first place if I had known what a bunch of vampiric ghouls they are.

Keep up the good work!

One of the funniest things I've read in ages, great write up.
"We suck so hard it tears away at the very fabric of time and space." lol
Also couldn't stop laughing at the pwned collage.
Feel very relieved to have left the black hole!

I hate facebook. i can't close or delete my account. i already try every ways from the internet, including this http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=16929680703

One of the things I'm curious about, is how long is information about you really kept? I am sure that at some point (perhaps like 5-10 years?) Information about you for data warehousing would be useless (by useless I mean no companies would want to buy the information that old), except for perhaps the government. So I wonder if Facebook and Google and Myspace indefinitely log all of your information, or if after a while they clean out their databases so they don't have to waste money holding out of date information?

حطيت كلمة السر صح والبريد كمان بس بيضل يحكيلي خأ

I know, I'm a little late with the idea... I don't even know if the staring of this blog stills logging in; but,

What you guys should do, is get the books written by this 'darlings' (Facebook owners: Zuckerberg, Thiel, Cox and all there gang) and, as victims of Facebook, begin the "study of the enemy". That's what I would do if I wasn't a third world country someone, and those essays of the "free world of tomorrow" were edited in my (poooor) country.

Funny stuff,

Amaranta Buendía.

Thank you so much for sharing this story and for the helpful advice on protecting our privacy. I've just "deactivated" my facebook account via one of the helpful links someone posted in the comments. Upon deactivating, the message states that if I do not try to log in again to my FB account in the next fourteen days (which I will not), my account will then be permanently deleted. Thank the lord, because the lack of anonymity/protection online is utterly frightening.

Thanks again for this helpful post.

Dude. I just sat here for like 26 hours and deleted all that shit off my facebook. It totally pissed me off. This is how you know facebook is the fucking feds, cause they retain all of your info. Whats lucys email, so she can delete my shit permanently?

Facebook screws you up.... http://www.flickr.com/photos/jmelewis/3839068671/
Just say no!!!

that was directed @ some asshole on page 1 btw saying they had friends IRL... cha right looooooser.

You're gonna love this one. Facebook, youtube...

I deleted or deactivated my facebook account a few years ago. I did not go through the steps. I figured it's gone and done.
Here we are in 2009. Search my name in Google... There's all my connections, and there's my picture. But the account was closed. So I was able to reactivate, delete all the connections and what ever else I can. Then deactivate. But now as I understand after reading this page, the account still needs to be deleted. And will take a long time. So far a few links are removed grom Google search, but the cached link still tags me to the profile and there's my picture. I hope they crawl soon and update.

Youtube...
Google my name, and a few links come up of sites I never heard of. Not even in the USA.
They crawl for videos and tag names. Use the embeded code on thier site. I did tag my you tube videos with my name. Big Mistake... Who knew?? But after I saw what's been going on, I deleted all my vids and closed youtube. So the links are still trickling off of Google. But some of the sites, still have my name name.html on their site, but no music videos. Cause the code is gone. So now I must write to every site I find, ask them to remove my info, and hope they do.

And here's the kicker.....

My girl broke it off with me. She thought I was still chatting in facebook...

those sneaky bastards they can go drink a cup of acid then have their eyes removed and poached on a fire then make them eat them

James, I hate to put a damper on your entire comment, but this 'article' was written over two years ago. Facebook pretty much added the delete option because of this 'article'.

OH MY GOSH WELL I GUESS FACEBOOK HAD BEEN TELLING ME TO CHANGE MY EMAIL OR SECURITY QUESTION BUT I NEVER REALLY PAYED IT ANY MIND NOW MY FACEBOOK WONT LET ME LOG IN! I GUESS MY EMAIL HAS EXPIRED WHAT CAN I DO TO GET IT TO WORK AGAIN???

Well played, sir. Thanks for the tips. I <3 your humor.

Melanie, you are wise. The best comment I've seen here (I haven't read all of them, though). Most of these people seem to spend a majority of their time indoors, on the computer, safe from most of the bad things they imagine may happen due to their nonsense posted on all of these juvenile 'spaces' and 'faces' places. My attitude is this; go outside, do something that doesn't require high thought (or spelling). For example, go to the local Salvation Army and serve food once in a while. Go to a nursing home and challenge all comers to a cribbage tournament. DO SOMETHING fer christ's sake! Others have said it and I concur; "what a bunch of whiners!!!). Geez, allright I'll answer the math question straight.

 I wonder if they still have your information in a database somewhere.  I believe this whole facebook thing is about data collection.

I worked in IT Networking and the Web for 20 years, all through the late 80's 90's and into the 00's.

I have never understood the desire to spread your personal information all over the planet for al land sundry to see. You wouldnt invite total strangers to look round your house, rummage thru your cupboards, and read all your post, so why do exactly the same thing online?

I have NEVER given my correct details online. Neither have I ever used  anything other than a throw away email addys. You must be mad to do so. Neither is there a photo of me online, anywhere.

You privacy is only worth keeping if you realise the value of it.

Thank you for all this info.

I just 'permanently deleted' an account ....I think! 

I followed the instructions on the this link:

http://antisocial.nectareen.com/how-do-i-delete-my-facebook-account/

Now I have to wait 14 days for the account to be permanently deleted.

To check if this really works, I sent a message to another facebook account.  Let's see if that message disappears in 15 days!

 This is why I don't use any of my real info or Facebook or any other site. It's bullshit that they make you use your real name to begin with, which is why I was first suspicious and chose my gamer handle to use instead. It's also been very helpful in helping me hide from co-workers, bosses, exes, etc.

please close my facebook account for good i have no regret for closing please do act on my advice

CLOSE THIS ACCOUNT, CLOSE THIS ACCOUNT HOW MANY TIMES TO I HAVE TO SAY IT. CLOSE IT.

אנא ת ורידו  את  החרא  הזה  מהמחשבים

This is the funniest thing I've read on the web in a while.  You are very talented in writing humor whilst conveying an important message.  Thanks for the smiles and info

For the reason, I was left with no other alternative but to quit the facebook forever. I also appeal all the Muslims/ Non-muslims  to unsubscribe the Face book unless it repent it ways.

October 2009 I deleted my Classmates.com account due to privacy concerns, Google was caching my account info.

Now, May 2010 I find my (old) Classmate account information presented to me on Facebook, which somehow automatically imported all my education history! This is upsetting as I have not authorized any exchange of personal data, and that should not happen on a deleted account. What an aggressive, invasive dealing.

So I'm pulling the plug on Facebook, especially since its CEO Zuckerberg bragging (when he was 19) that he'd gathered personal information from thousands of users for the nascent TheFacebook.com. "People just submitted it," Zuckerberg messaged, "I don't know why. They 'trust me.' Dumb fcuks."

hello all,

my situation is a bit different but it pisses me off, as much as you yours ;> . Here's the situation: i never registered on facebook but when a friend of mine, who has profile there, wants to invite me, he gets this message: "one of the email addresses you entered cannot be invited. The person may be on facebook but with restricted privacy settings".  Maybe i don't understand this facebook scam too good (but hey - I don't have the profile! ) but this information is wrong, as I don't have the profile so I can't even "probably" have any privacy settings there. I contacted them 3 times about this issue, but they just gave me the "auto" answer to look in the faq. So,  I thought that maybe my email was compromised  and  there is a profile registered to my email, so I tried to reset the password. I got the answer that "the email you entered does not belong to any account..." . So wtf is going on here - anyone had this problem.?I  know it's not a big deal, but still, i don't want to be listed in their database as "probably having profile", as i never agreed to it.

ps.

I now remembered that once i got an invite from some random person and I may have ( i can't find this mail in my SENT folder) written to facebook that i don't want my email to be spammed by their network - maybe this is the reason? But still, this does not explain the "...may be on facebook with restricted privacy settings" part of the message.