Facebook

[PoliticalNightmare]

So I was stupid enough to join the site and after realising how awful their privacy policy is, I want to get rid of it. However what I want to know is, when I delete my account is their a way of getting rid of my pictures and personal information so that 'Big Brother' won't be able to get hold of it anymore? Or somehow minimising their hold on that stuff. Cheers.

Also, is Myspace as bad as Facebook? Should I delete my account there as well?

[RedandBlack]

Best you can do is remove the pictures, info, everything and then delete your account. The information you posted is probably archived, though.

[Jazzhands]

Myspace is worse than facebook, yes. What you could do is go in and un-tag all the photos of yourself, delete your own photos, make sure that everyone who has you tagged as siblings or something untags you. Obliterate every trace of your existence. Other than that, make sure you go in and individually remove yourself from all fanpages and groups. Then shut down your account.

[Bubbles]

But before you do that. Do a risk analysis so that you don't just end up being unhealthy paranoid.

[Bitter Ashes]

Believe this is the guide you're looking for. (http://www.ehow.com/how_2049858_make-tinfoil-hat.html)

[punisa]

But before you do that. Do a risk analysis so that you don't just end up being unhealthy paranoid.

Being on Facebook is unhealthy to begin with.
Not because the privacy issue, but because virtual people are not people.

[Bubbles]

Being on Facebook is unhealthy to begin with.
Not because the privacy issue, but because virtual people are not people.
People on facebook aint no bots.

[punisa]

People on facebook aint no bots.
I'm starting to think they are :D

[Q]

I also recently deactivated my account and let it be deleted (you can merely deactivate it and it only gets deleted after two weeks) after I deleted my pics, groups, etc. What helps is to also delete any tags people made of you in photo's, video's, etc. But there is only so much you can delete.

That said, Facebook is too big to be ignored with now 500 million users. I plan on making a new account soon, be it using a political alias.

[Nachie]

I had a friend who deleted his facebook and then over a year later decided he wanted one again to keep in touch with new people he'd met, so just for kicks he entered his old e-mail and password into the site and poof, there was his old account with all his friends and everything just like it was on the day he "deleted" it.

[Q]

I had a friend who deleted his facebook and then over a year later decided he wanted one again to keep in touch with new people he'd met, so just for kicks he entered his old e-mail and password into the site and poof, there was his old account with all his friends and everything just like it was on the day he "deleted" it.

That is so lame. Facebook says it takes 14 days to get your account deleted as soon as you deactivate it (although any use of Facebook, even if you have a third-party chat client you use to chat to your Facebook contacts, etc, will cancel the deactivation period). It also says that there is a data retention of up to 90 days. But a year is crazy stuff.

[Nachie]

I'm just wondering, when Facebook is yesterday's news and everybody switches to Diaspora and starts putting all their old photos up on there, will Facebook start demanding that they be taken down because according to the TOS those photos were their exclusive property? THAT is going to be interesting.

[meow]

change alll your photos to random ones off the net. change your name. delete all your friends. make "friends" with random people. change your birth date. change your sex. be in a committed relationship with a small dog.

pollute your data. once you have done that for two or three weeks than delete your account.

i believe you want: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=16929680703 or http://www.wikihow.com/Permanently-Delete-a-Facebook-Account either one i guess.
have fun with your new life.

of course if you are sensible you dont put real info up in first place. and so the first steps not needed so much.

[Snakes]

There is an automated way as well. In stead of removing every trace of information yourself ( statuses, tags, groups, fanpages, ... ) you can let http://suicidemachine.org/ do it for you.

I was not sure if the site was still working because facebook was trying to sue them or threaten them to stop the site. After a quick visit to the site, I don't see anything mentionned that the (suicide) machine is not working anymore. You can use it also for other network-sites such as LinkedIn, Twitter, Myspace.

But like somebody above already mentionned: be aware that information you gave in the past to facebook is most likely archieved. So you're never sure of what they know about you and what the public internet might know about you in the future ( keeping FB's goal of making everything on FB searchable for the world wide web ).

Off topic but still in terms of privcay. Be also aware that most of your internet activity means that you re giving away personal information. Data profiling is a common practise on the internet. Your search-queries, your email, your activity on online maps, ... everything is recorded, scanned for keywords and analyzed to make a profile of you for commercial reasons ( personalized ads ). A good book about those practises , with a special focus on the "free" services of Google :

http://www.diesel-ebooks.com/mas_assets/full/parent-9780321518668.jpg

From time to time it becomes a bit to technical ( for readers without a technical background ) but still learning-full. It also provides you with a bunch of counter measurements you can take.

[Q]

There is an automated way as well. In stead of removing every trace of information yourself ( statuses, tags, groups, fanpages, ... ) you can let http://suicidemachine.org/ do it for you.

I was not sure if the site was still working because facebook was trying to sue them or threaten them to stop the site. After a quick visit to the site, I don't see anything mentionned that the (suicide) machine is not working anymore. You can use it also for other network-sites such as LinkedIn, Twitter, Myspace.
This is good to know!


Off topic but still in terms of privcay. Be also aware that most of your internet activity means that you re giving away personal information. Data profiling is a common practise on the internet. Your search-queries, your email, your activity on online maps, ... everything is recorded, scanned for keywords and analyzed to make a profile of you for commercial reasons ( personalized ads ). A good book about those practises , with a special focus on the "free" services of Google :

http://www.diesel-ebooks.com/mas_assets/full/parent-9780321518668.jpg

From time to time it becomes a bit to technical ( for readers without a technical background ) but still learning-full. It also provides you with a bunch of counter measurements you can take.

Can you download the book somewhere? :p

[Peace on Earth]

Almost everything is archived on Facebook, regardless of the status of the account. I've given up trying to "hide" from Facebook. Why would I care if people knew my political views or anything else about me? I say to Big Brother: Come and get me! :lol:

[Pretty Flaco]

I'm not afraid of Big Broski.
I need facebook to stay connected with some friends of mine anyway.

[Blackscare]

I plan on making a new account soon, be it using a political alias.

Make sure you make it a believable sounding real name, Q. Facebook deletes profiles with myspace-esque names that clearly aren't people's actual names.

[Widerstand]

So I made a political alias too, but I don't want to verify with my mobile number. However, I can't post anymore until I verify. How can I bypass that?

[RedAnarchist]

I had a lot of leftists on my personal FB profile, but I've removed most of them and added them to a political account under an alias.

[leftace53]

I remembered I had another facebook account, and made that my political alias. The mobile thing came up for me for a while, but I ignored it and it went away after a while.

[Widerstand]

o.o

That would be awesome. However I have doubts it still works that way, yesterday I couldn't post for a few minutes because I' didn't verify.

[Blood]

I have a FB account, I deleted my old one though. Deactivating it does nothing. I deactivated my account back last September. 2 months later I was able to log back in with everything being the same. I finally found a way to delete everything though. It requires a simple internet search, which is why you must find out yourself. After I was able to delete it, I tried to look for myself on the internet. I couldn't find me anywhere on facebook. Deleting your stuff means deleting everything (photos, tags, groups you are in, etc.).

[Widerstand]

I have a FB account, I deleted my old one though. Deactivating it does nothing. I deactivated my account back last September. 2 months later I was able to log back in with everything being the same. I finally found a way to delete everything though. It requires a simple internet search, which is why you must find out yourself. After I was able to delete it, I tried to look for myself on the internet. I couldn't find me anywhere on facebook. Deleting your stuff means deleting everything (photos, tags, groups you are in, etc.).

suicidemachine?...

[PoliticalNightmare]

Yeah, weird thing. My account had been dormant for a few weeks(I hadn't used it) and my dad pointed out that he had received an email from me saying this;

"yo, try this brain test thing I saw on FB [facebook], its actually really difficult.. i can't seem to get higher than like a 101..."

Anyway, I checked on my email and sure enough this email had been sent to [I]all my contacts: how embarassing! As well as this a number of emails had been sent to random users (not on my address book) often with the title of I believe, their names and a subject which said something like;

"[Insert Name],

A website was e-mailed by someone you know."

And then at the end of the email a link, which I have decidedly not clicked on. I was just wondering if this was something to do with using facebook (as I used the hotmail adress in regards) and played on some of the quizes their because I was bored (but not an IQ quiz). I later heard doing so, you risk sharing certain contact details with third persons.

Anyway the weird thing is the hacker/virus, whatever never changed my password and thus I was able to log back in and change my password.

Thanks.

[nip]

However what I want to know is, when I delete my account is their a way of getting rid of my pictures and personal information so that 'Big Brother' won't be able to get hold of it anymore? Or somehow minimising their hold on that stuff.

Nope, if it's on the internet it stays on the internet.