Facebook glitch a nightmare for users
Do you use the popular social networking site Facebook? Over four hundred million people have Facebook accounts to socialize and share video clips and photos with friends. A Facebook glitch was discovered on Wednesday that yet again brought privacy issues to the forefront in users’ minds. The glitch had allowed private information such as friend lists, chat conversation and other information to be accessed by other people.
Facebook reassured users that they are working to fix the glitch that caused the breach but many people have become skeptical of Facebook’s privacy standards. Some people have found that their Facebook information has been available to anyone on the Internet, resulting in many users opting to delete their accounts and just use other social networking sites such as MySpace and Twitter to stay in touch with their friends and family members.
Facebook users need to make sure that they update their privacy settings to keep their information private. This can be done on their own homepages so that only friends can access their photos, walls, and video clips. Any time that you sign up for a social networking site and start posting personal information you need to think about posting only what you feel comfortable with. Never post a lot of personal information such as your address, telephone number, or email address. This information could be taken by anyone and used maliciously. Facebook is a good social networking site but the Internet still raises privacy issues and can be a double edged sword so it is better to be safe than sorry.
I have tried and tried to delete my Facebook account, but after many attempts to find a way to do so, all I could find was an option to “deactivate” my account. Soooo … is it really possible to delete a Facebook account, and how do you do it?
No, it is not possible to delete your Facebook account. They keep the information stored on their servers forever, basically.
I also would like an easy to use delete link. I want to hit the word delete and have it so. Making people jump through hoops to delete their accounts just makes face book more suspect.
Helen, I do not think it is possible to permanently delete your account. The only option we see is “deactivate”, however, I’m told if you contact them and request to delete the account for good, they must adhere to it. Deactivating is good enough in my opinion. It will stop all sharing of your information, but realistically, your information will still be stored in facebook’s database.
Helen: You write an email to Facebook’s support, asking them to permanently and completely eradicate your account with any trace from their servers. I believe this is the only sure way of knowing it’s truly gone. This way you’ll also have a paper-trail (in form of e-mail replies) of your request of this action. Cheers & good luck with that (since Facebook really does not want to permanently remove anything). ~m
Helen,
Google “delete facebook account” and follow the first link. It’s quite easy.
Click this link, click Submit, and then follow the next steps:
https://ssl.facebook.com/help/contact.php?show_form=delete_account&__a=3
Go through the steps and then wait at least 2 weeks without TRYING to log in again, or “liking” a website, or doing anything related to Facebook. After a period of time, the deletion will be permanent.
The first thing to bear in mind is that even after you delete (close, deactivate) your data still belongs to Facebook. So the first thing to do is wade through the many Preferences tabs and set all options to maximum privacy. Next, delete your profile: date of birth, residence, email address, interests, and all the rest. Finally, un-friend everyone, leaving your page a blank slate. Finally, deactivate your account and do not log back in. If you refrain from logging in for two weeks, FB should delete your account.
Final step is to delete all Facebook cookies in your browser.
See you on Flickr, Picasa, Buzz, or the local pick-up soccer game
Best,
Randy
This is the link for deleting your profile off of facebook-
https://ssl.facebook.com/help/contact.php?show_form=delete_account&__a=3
Helen, I agree completely! How the F do you actually delete the account? I have also tried repeatedly, yet all of my info is still there… Apparently it is quite impossible to actually delete a fb account. what sneaky bastards
Well, what else are social networking sites going to monetize? Your personal information! They got nothing else.
I don’t know how to do that, but here is a site that will get your name deleted from their pages. They stole our information, including photo’s, videos, messages, etc. They even have your credit score, phone numbers, and photo’s of where you live! Check it out…scary! Forward this to everyone you know!
FYI EVERYONE- There’s a site called spokeo.com and it’s an online phone book that has a picture of you and your house, credit score, profession, age, how many people live in the house. Remove yourself by the Privacy button on the bottom right.
Well, you could write bogus information in all your info boxes, then deactivate the account, im sure that would be as good as deleting
“See you on Flickr, Picasa, Buzz, or the local pick-up soccer game” I’ll be the one who stops to tweet as soon as he gets the ball.
I won’t even use it. The sloppy design and numerous holes prove their so-called “developers” and “programmers” are lightweight peons.
Excuse me guys, but you might want to wake up to the fact that Facebook isn’t going anywhere.
Yes, there are privacy concerns. But if you think the Internet is private, you are kidding yourself. My generation would rather change the culture than delete our Facebook accounts.
Jeez people, do you not know how to use Google. It’s simple to delete your account. Google it and follow the instruction. You do have to wait two weeks, and I’m sure FB keeps the data forever. FB is evil, everyone should leave it.
Hey if you don’t want people to know things about you. Don’t put it on the internet. I only put up pictures I don’t care if others see and say things that are not personal. Hell that is what they make phones for is privacy. People whining about not having privacy on the internet are by far the stupidest people on the planet.
The neat thing is that I never put much but the very basics for enrolling on Facebook and that I have my own Web site. Thanks for all your suggestions. I did “Google” the topic and found a Wikipedia page that seemed quite helpful. I guess the trick is to wait for at least two weeks of no contact with Facebook after deactivating.
I wish Facebook would let us control everything on our accounts for privacy reasons. Since they let my likes/interests be in public view my ex has found which places I like to go (he is an ex for a reason) and my employer now knows my fondness for bars, etc. Totally unacceptable.
Facebook, please consider the danger in not letting people control what is private/public.