Never, EVER, Trust Facebook

I stopped using Facebook a long time ago, but I didn’t want to remove my account and have no visibility on how or what Facebook might be showing about me or someone using my name. So I decided to simply remove all my Facebook content.

Just over a year and a half ago, on January 30, 2012, I deleted every single Wall post I had ever made. By hand. One. By. One.

Last October, I logged in for a look-see and was stunned to find out that all of my deleted posts had been restored by Facebook and were present on my Timeline for all my friends to see. I fumed. I cursed them loudly on Twitter. And I deleted, not hid, deleted, every single one of my Wall posts again. By hand. One. By. One.

Facebook Post Delete Snap

Today, I logged in to Facebook to check a page, and I’ll bet you can guess what’s coming.

All of my Wall posts Many of my deleted Wall posts were back on my Timeline as if they had never been deleted! I was able to find posts all the way back to Jan 2009. I tried to go farther back, but the site is so slow, and nothing more ever loaded. It’s probably still there all right. They probably have it on some slower long-term storage server.

Although I don’t consider it redeeming in any way, all my photos are still deleted, or at least none of my albums show up.

I am stunned by Facebook’s callous disregard for their users. I simply cannot fathom that they refuse to respect my decisions to delete my posts from my Timeline. This is outrageous. I realize that I was one of Facebook’s products, am still until I delete my account, but I should be able to decide to delete something and have it deleted. And stay deleted.

Facebook Are You Sure Snap

The Online Merriam-Webster dictionary defines delete thusly,

: to eliminate especially by blotting out, cutting out, or erasing

It further defines eliminate,

: to put an end to or get rid of : remove

What does Facebook not understand in these definitions? Do they think they can redefine these words however they like?

I am not going to waste time deleting all of my content a third time. I can document everything I’ve said in this post, and I am tired of the big unfeeling Facebook robot who wants to waste my time. I did not want to delete my account, but now Facebook is not leaving me any choice. It seems deleting my account is the only way to remove my content.

Or is it? If Facebook doesn’t understand what should happen when I delete my wall posts, who’s to say that if I delete my account, it won’t come back too? That sounds crazy, but so does bringing back posts that were supposed to have been deleted.

Oh, and lest you’re tempted to leave a comment that goes something like “Whatever. Don’t have a hissy over some stupid Facebook posts,” the point isn’t my posts. I don’t care about the content of the posts. I do care about the fact that Facebook is deceitful. They are trying to deceive us into thinking that we can delete our posts, when we can’t. Facebook is the all-powerful, second only to Google in its uncaring robotic logic. They can and do whatever they like with my posts, whenever they like.

That is why I won’t use Facebook any more. That is why I may delete my Facebook account. And that is why you should too.

July 2, 2013 Update: As I started looking more closely into the details of my timeline today with the help of a Facebook engineer who contacted me on the blog, I’ve noticed that while many of the posts I deleted have returned, a few that I remember particularly have not, or at least I haven’t found them yet. Therefore I am unable to confirm that Facebook has restored all of my deleted posts; only a large number of them. I’ve amended the text of the post accordingly.

July 4, 2013 Update: If you are coming to this blog from a website called Real Clear Technology, that is pretending that I am a contributor to their site, please note that I do not write for Real Clear Technology, nor am I affiliated with them in any way. They simply placed a link on their site to my blog. The AP picture placed next to the link on their front page is not me.

Previously:

Don’t Be Fooled Facebook Is Forever
Facebook–The Last Straw

This entry was posted in Facebook, Privacy and tagged . Bookmark the permalink.

101 Responses to Never, EVER, Trust Facebook

  1. engineer says:

    Frankly, I think this is more than just a bad business practice. This is fraud. They represented to you that they deleted the content on your command, even made you confirm this is what you wanted. I would send a letter to their legal department, demanding that they delete the content as you requested and to send a letter to you from one of their lawyers within 30 days confirming that they have done this. (I’d also consider deleting the account.)

    Since FB changes the ToS without getting your agreement, they have little to hid behind in failing to do what you ask… in fact, it’s arguable they don’t have a license to that content because you’ve never agreed to give them a license. (Changing the ToS without notifying you is questionable, and they do it all the time.)

    By default you have copyright to your content. By deleting it, you have used their provided methods to remove their ability to display it, which means they are violating your copyright.

    • laura says:

      Thanks for your suggestion. I have thought about taking similar action. Actually, my main concern is not having the content deleted, it’s the misrepresentation.

      And of course, I know they don’t actually delete the content when they say they do. However, they shouldn’t be stupid enough to reset the delete flag when they update the Timeline.

      • Vonnie says:

        There are very few things that insense me more that the chicanery of big companies like Facebook toying with peoples preferences.

        If we erroneously trusted the delete button to delete our wall posts then I wonder what else we think is private but actually isn’t? Who knows what Facebook is doing with the voluminous stacks of personal information sitting in its data centers. This is infuriating and Facebook should be chagrined. But Facebook isn’t. Facebook doesn’t care. Facebook just wants advertisers, subscribers, and fame. I don’t even use Facebook anymore, but it was simply because I didn’t care for it; now I have even more reason to relegate it to oblivion.

    • It is called bait and switch there are court cases that back up victims of such business machinations.

    • Bob says:

      I don’t know much about legal stuff, but I heard that in the agreement that you accept when creating your account, you relinquish all copyrights to your media (photos, etc.) to Facebook.

      • Aidan says:

        Wrong again. Facebook does not claim copyright to individual posts; they just take a non-exclusive license.

    • Joe says:

      Facebook OWNS your content by using the site. Do not use it.

  2. Mare Gladwell says:

    My big problem with Facebook is that now that I am logged on to it all the time, all the websites that have the “Facebook” Plug In have my information (which apparently can be changed). However, if I do change, then all of my settings and preferences and logins on all those third-party settings are also erased (i.e. my fiverr account). Now I have to either re-start if I want to stop using Facebook all together.

    Mare

  3. GSP says:

    I “deleted” my account a few years back, regularly still get notifications that someone tagged me or similar and I should sign back in to see the image, where logging in would re-activate the account. Very sneaky, trust Facebook about as much at AT&T, BOA, other shady corporations.

    • John says:

      I don’t think that has anything to do with your deleted account. I’m pretty sure you can get email notifications from Facebook even if you never had an account there.

    • Sargo Darya says:

      Hey dude, that sounds like you just deactivated your account. Log back in once and delete it the right way.

      • laura says:

        That’s dudette! No, go back up to the top where I explained that what I did was delete each Facebook Wall Post by hand, one by one.

  4. wat says:

    I made an imacros script to ‘automatically-hand-delete’ every facebook post sometime around mid-2011. The posts I deleted appear deleted still, so maybe they changed something later on.

    The one annoyance I’ve found in my timeline though (which I didn’t observe earlier) is that it’s filled in those years of deleted messages with friend’s messages to me.

    • laura says:

      Interesting. When I deleted tried to delete my posts, I turned off the option that lets friends post on my Wall. Until now, it seems to have stayed off.

      • wat says:

        Actually, I just double-checked – The visibility setting of those older messages is ‘only me’ – guessing they did this as they changed how messaging works over the years or something. Still stinks if their deletion policy has changed.

  5. bradclawsie says:

    is it possible to just edit the posts if they cannot be deleted?

    i.e. just change the content to “…………………..” or something else meaningless?

    • laura says:

      Probably. My main problem isn’t the content of the posts, it’s the “deceptive” nature of the delete button. But thanks for the suggestion.

  6. ant says:

    i completely agree with the points you’ve made in this post.

    i have also had a similar experience with deleting content on facebook – except, in my case, i was attempting to delete entries in the “notes” application. one year later, and four separate attempts to rid my account of said entries…

    i hate facebook -.-

  7. bob says:

    Delete your account and don’t worry about the small minded buffoons who use the wretched site. I deleted mine years ago and have no idea (and couldn’t care less) if someone has set up an account claiming to be me. Parking your account leaves you open to Facebook claiming they undeleted your posts ‘just in case’. Oh and it may be worth reading closely the terms of service. They stink.

    • laura says:

      Thanks. I tend to agree. I also read the terms of service pretty closely a few years ago (although I realize they may have changed) so I understand that I can’t really expect to have much control at all over what they do.

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  9. Joe says:

    Could it be that Facebook didn’t show you all your content at once? My timeline only shows the most commented/liked stuff, so going through and delete them all wouldn’t actually delete every last thing since it would then go recalculate and bring up the next most commented/liked stuff. If you go into your activity log, it should list every last thing you’ve ever done on Facebook and you can delete it from there. I’ve never had a problem with that before and I’ve used it tons of times.

    • laura says:

      Hi Joe, That’s a good point. I realized that when I was deleting my posts, and I kept deleting until I had deleted every last thing. I have screen shots with two different Timeline versions (since this happened to me twice) showing my empty Timeline once it had been completely cleaned. I’m glad it worked for you, though.

    • David says:

      Isn’t your post and msgs your intellectual properties?

  10. gre says:

    Did you know that Facebook also seems to conserve all your passwords? (or maybe just the last one)
    A few years ago, I’ve changed my password and when trying to login with the old password, It said something like “Sorry you entered an old password”.

    Otherwise, that’s hard to get rid of social accounts, maybe I should play http://socialroulette.net/ one time :-D

    • laura says:

      That’s unsettling, although I’m not that surprised. Many systems keep a record of your passwords, if for nothing else to force you to use a new one if you have to change it.

    • larsviklund says:

      They don’t necessarily have to persist them in plain-text, thankfully.
      All you need to store is a hash, an irreversible digest, made up through hash(salt+email+password) or so. Given the hash value, you can test for likely equality, but you cannot given the hash alone determine the password in realistic time, even if the salt and email was known.

  11. ben radler says:

    We have to assume facebook is using a “paranoid” strategy for deleting your posts, accounts, etc. This is a common practice when developing web apps — when a user requests a “delete” of a record in the database, instead of actually removing it we set a boolean flag of “deleted: true”.

    This way we can recover data from the past, should the user want to recover it for his/her records, or should some outside entity request it (*cough* the government *cough*).

    It seems TERRIBLE practice to reset all of these deleted flags when launching a new layout.

    • laura says:

      Yes, that’s a good point. I am aware of this, but I agree with you about resetting the flags. I’m sure that’s what’s happening, and it should be easy to fix.

  12. Tim says:

    “That is why I won’t use Facebook any more. That is why I may delete my Facebook account. And that is why you should too.”

    Based on what happened who knows if it would actually get deleted but I’m curious as to why you ‘may’ delete it. You don’t use it so why keep it?

    • laura says:

      I can’t answer your question, Tim. I don’t know. I should delete it and then try to expunge any dreg persistent cookies from my browser. I think the only reason I keep it is that I might need to go in to look at something from inside Facebook like I did today. Some things you have to be logged in to see. Or I might have a new need to use it in the future. That’s probably wrong or a bad idea, but for the moment it’s all I can put into words.

  13. zundg says:

    “This is outrageous. I realize that I was one of Facebook’s products, am still until I delete my account”

    You cannot delete your account. You can only “deactivate” ist, at least thats what i was confronted with when trying to delete my 0-wallpost 1-contact profile years ago…

    • laura says:

      Thank you for reminding me of this! I remember reading that in the support pages now. You’ve brought back some of my thinking that I’d forgotten when I attempted to answer Tim. My reasoning, for what it’s worth, was that since I can only deactivate my account, it would be better for me to keep it active and retain some miniscule speck of control than to simply deactivate it and no longer have access to anything. Of course, that was my thinking at the time. I thought that “deleting posts” would be more reliable than deactivating my account. Now I realize that there is not even a miniscule speck of control…

  14. brian says:

    says the guy with 19 trackers on his blog… but nonetheless, you obviously have a point.

  15. Scott Renfro says:

    My name is Scott Renfro, and I’m a software engineer at Facebook working on security and privacy. We’ve put a lot of work into making deletions permanent, so I can imagine how frustrated you must be. I’m pretty sure those story deletions are permanent, and I can’t think of any place where we can or do automatically restore user-deleted content months later.

    If you happen to have any more details about specific stories that reappeared, I’d love to try and figure out exactly what happened. Admittedly, that may be difficult now that several months have passed.

    As one of the other commenters mentioned, your Activity Log is a better place to get a full list of your activity and delete it item-by-item. It also shows posts that Timeline omits and includes other types of content such as likes and comments. This help page may be useful https://www.facebook.com/help/activitylog and you can find your Activity Log at https://www.facebook.com/me/allactivity?privacy_source=activity_log&log_filter=all&filter_onlyme=on

    I couldn’t tell from your description, but one possibility is that you only saw and deleted the stories rendered on your Timeline, which is just a summary of your activity.

    • laura says:

      Hello Scott, This is helpful. I don’t think I missed deleting anything, but since I haven’t used Facebook very much since the Timeline was introduced, I cannot swear that I did not miss something. I will check the links you sent and post an update if they explains my issue. I am not so pretentious that I would not admit to an error. On the other hand, if this does not explain what happened to me, I will contact you with more information.

  16. Pingback: Never, EVER, Trust Facebook | The well-prepared mind | facebook in the news

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  18. Marky says:

    Too bad you can’t edit your posts like you can with G+ right? Otherwise if you have the patience to do it a 3rd time do so, but this time overwrite it with usesless text then save. :)

    • laura says:

      Actually, I don’t know. Anyway, that’s a good idea, but the point isn’t so much about the content as it is the misrepresentation. I’d rather have the actual posts than useless content on my Timeline. Of course, what I really wanted to have was nothing.

  19. Brodie says:

    I deleted my facebook account completely about 4 years ago, i went throught the slow process of “are you sure you want to delete this account” and “instead of deleting it we can just make it hidden for you” crap and finally deleted it. Last year, i logged straight into it, everything was just the way it was before i “deleted” it.

    • laura says:

      Hi Brodie, Thanks for taking the time to comment. I’m sorry you had the same problem. Maybe if more people speak up they’ll do something to fix it.

  20. timrpeterson says:

    just delete your account

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  22. Ric Day says:

    Laura, I saw the same problem (my posts, comments, etc “automagically” reappearing) about a year ago. I had quit Facebook some years ago, got tired of the emails from Facebook about wanting to connect me with someone I might know, and logged in to see what was happening. And it was all back.

    Facebook is flat-out creepy.

    • laura says:

      Hi Ric, Thanks for adding this. Some people are suggesting that I didn’t really delete everything, that some posts weren’t being displayed in the Timeline, and so I wasn’t able to delete them. Knowing that others like you have had the same thing happen is reassuring. It’s hard to prove, but I know there is content I deleted, that wouldn’t conceivably have been hidden, that has reappeared. So much of it in fact. It’s hard to take screensnaps of everything. I have lots of snaps, but even more would have been useful. This isn’t an innocuous error, it’s more perfidious. Someone from Facebook contacted me and is taking this seriously. That is good, at least.

  23. aditter says:

    Why go through the whole process of deleting one by one each activity or comment? If you are so fed up then you should have just deleted your account. If you dislike this tool so much, then why are you going back or keep your account. You signed up to a social network site, where you are sharing your status, pictures events with many people, some of which you might not even know (depends how active you were). Each of them can copy and paste your activities, keep them ore share them onwards in FB or another tool.

    Frankly, if you roam on the Internet, then you will leave a footprint. I am tired of people complaining about how their data privacy is not valued. If you are sure FB is wrong, sue them. If not, stop complaining.

    • laura says:

      I know how you feel. I am tired of hearing people complain about how their data privacy is not valued. Is the answer to stop complaining? Is the answer to stop participating in society? In culture? Or is the answer to make sure that people have some reasonable expectation of privacy in their social interactions or at least some control of how that information is used to present them? This is a vast question. I think it is one of the defining topics of this decade.

      Many people have asked me why I keep my account. Look at it this way, like it or not, Facebook is used by over 1.11 billion people in the world (according to their stats page). Lots of people are using it not just for connecting to friends, but for business or promotion of their organizations and groups. Does it seem strange to you that while I don’t personally like Facebook or want to use it, I might want to have access to check out some of these things from inside the site? I do this on average a few times a year. Is keeping an empty account worth it so that I can have that access? For the moment, the answer for me is yes. As for the web tracking and persistent cookies that might come with that, I’ve been playing the ostrich a bit, but that’s beside the point.

      I worked for a social network site for a while, I know how they work. I know very well that others can share my status. I’m not talking here about the fact that copies of my content may have “leaked out” to somewhere else than my profile. I’m not talking about being able to completely remove all traces of any “social footprint.” I’m simply saying that Facebook is being deceptive.

      I am very active on Twitter. Twitter allows me to delete a Tweet. I have never had a problem with a deleted Tweet reappearing. Ever. Twitter seems to understand what delete means, and values my decision.

      In providing a delete button, in asking me to confirm that I really want to delete my content (posts), Facebook portrayed to me that I had some control over my content as shown on my own Timeline. I’m not talking about anything else. Just my Timeline. Had Facebook not provided a delete button, it would have been different. I might have even acted differently, but that’s beside the point. Facebook told me I could delete my content from my Timeline, by providing that button, by leading me through a workflow to operate it. And then they brought that deleted content back. Twice.

      This is not about deleting the content of the posts per se. This is about misrepresentation. Facebook misrepresented to me that I could delete this content from my Timeline. Whether by innocent error or deliberate disregard, that content has been reinstated not once, but twice. I would simply like for others to be aware of this, and potentially, for Facebook to pay attention to and respect their users. That’s all.

  24. Russel says:

    I make a point of deleting my albums two weeks after I post them. Comments… way too many, but yes, this is interesting, tnx

  25. we all know that all your sensitive data will not be deleted by facebook … even if you delete your account they will still store a copy of it

  26. john czajka says:

    Delete your account (https://www.facebook.com/help/delete_account), regret that you’ve ever used it, and realize that they’ll probably still expose all of your deleted account data at some point during an upgrade… or Facebook will hand it over to the NSA when posting opinions becomes an auto-felony (grandfathered in of course, after all it will be “legal” like the current wiretapping laws)

  27. Lori H says:

    I have a totally different experience, I never delete my posts, I simply click HIDE so that I can Change the look of my page , but I Do not want to Lose the information ……But, when I try to find the info on my Hidden Posts ….I cannot bring them back up! Therefore If You want to delete just hide it and you or anyone else will never find it! I like FB……I always think it is my inability to understand some of the rules and technical aspects of usage?

    • laura says:

      Hi Lori, That’s a bit ironic. I decided not to “Hide” my posts because I was more worried they would become “unhidden” in Timeline upgrades than if I deleted them. Sounds like I would have been better off using your method. Unfortunately, I can’t answer your question because I don’t really know my way around Facebook anymore, but thanks for leaving a note. That’s interesting.

  28. samson says:

    Reblogged this on STORY 2 SUCCESS BLOG and commented:
    facebook is just crap, i just read an article at forbes and the writer thinks facebook will no longer exist in 4 years.

  29. giridharvc7 says:

    Do you think deleting your facebook account will actually ‘delete’ your data ? What if your data is not deleted at all and is being used for something else , because the ‘delete’ button didn’t actually delete your status messages , how are you sure deleting your account will magically erase all your data !

    • laura says:

      Personally, no, I don’t think deleting my account will delete my data. I don’t think anything short of an injunction would get Facebook to delete my data, and even then. I’d just like them to get the point that I’d like to have it deleted from my Timeline.

  30. Elijah says:

    guess what, when you delete your account, it will not be deleted!

  31. Ahmed Aziz says:

    Just saying thats why you can’t trust services that your not the customer of. They are not liable to you, you are the product. I seriously think you should check out things like http://pixter.in where you are the user. Full disclosure: My brother made this so just saying

    • laura says:

      Thanks. Of course there are many alternate services that offer a different business model. The one your brother made sounds a lot like Path. Perhaps people will begin migrating to these services in bigger numbers, but I don’t need a new social sharing site. I’m just interested in seeing that such sites are not misrepresenting themselves to their users. What I said to aditter applies here too.

  32. I noticed this as well after checking. I am very frustrated. I would love to be able to delete as well. Is there a way to request a delete feature? This is something I would pay for.

    • laura says:

      Sorry to hear you had the same problem. Actually, they already have the delete feature. They just need to make it work. I don’t think you should have to pay for it either.

  33. I too deleted my Facebook account for over two years and finally decided to “log back in” for professional reasons. I cannot fathom the fact that Facebook does not understand the concept of “delete”. To delete on Facebook means to TEMPORARILY REMOVE until you later sign back in. WTF is this?! Thats not what I wanted! ::sigh:: Quite annoying. I dont like Facebook but in today’s culture its apart of everything.

  34. TonyD says:

    I’m afraid you see the (Facebook-)world from the wrong perspective. You and your data are a merchandise, a product that is sold by Facebook to any party that pays. Every information you enter on a Facebook page has a product code in a catalog. Do you really think that Facebook will stop selling a product, just because that product doesnt want to be in the catalog anymore ?

    • laura says:

      Hi. I think you missed the sentence in the post where I mentioned that I do realize I am a product on Facebook. I’m afraid that it’s not as black and white as you suggest, either. Sure, Facebook users are creating value for Facebook, but it’s a fine line. If users are treated too poorly, they’ll leave. No users. No Facebook. I never said Facebook shouldn’t be creating values from users in this way. I’m simply saying that they seemed deceitful in making me think I could delete my points when I could not. Happy users will use Facebook more and create more value for Facebook.

      What I said to aditter applies here too.

  35. pascalw says:

    Hi Laura, a scary experience for sure and most definitely worth sharing. Deleting your account shouldn’t have to be the answer, hopefully the guys at Facebook can figure out what went wrong and stop this from happening to others. A shameless plug but I’d recommend using SocialSafe (http://socialsafe.net). It’s an app we developed to download and backup your content from various social networks as we believe you should be the largest owner of your online content and not have to rely on those networks to preserve it (as ironically posts, photos, friends etc often get ‘lost’ – if only this had happened in your case!) So please do give SocialSafe a go, especially if you’re considering a hard delete on your account – at least you can get a copy everything locally first. (Also has limited support for WordPress blogs too ;)

    Good luck, Pascal

  36. Anno Neemus says:

    I’m getting the impression that this is the standard US (NSA, et al) approach to dealing with people.

  37. Honestly Facebook scares me.Many criminals use social media as their tool.Going to fine without my facebook account.

    Brigitte Grisanti

  38. missfitmum says:

    Hi Laura,

    I read your blog because I too have had the same issue with Facebook. The only difference is that I did delete my account. But before I deleted or should I say deactivated I manually deleted every friend, photo, video and wall post. Then I deactivated. Wanting to investigate this action I later reappeared on Facebook only to be faced with old posts and even photos I had rid my profile of. I repeated this cycle again. Then I rejoined and built up my network and profile from scratch.
    A year later I wanted to disassociate once more. Knowing that my content was stored in some cloud somewhere I simply deactivated and now a year on I have not looked back. To me it felt like I was being urged not to leave. Like they knew I would come back and regret my moment of clarity. It worked but I never engaged with Facebook the same after that. It sounds like you are sucked in too. You give reasons to stay but really no good never come from Facebook. They don’t delete because you won’t either. But then this is only my opinion from my experience. Such is society.

  39. Hi,

    Thanks for pointing this out! We’ve reblogged this on our Tumblr here and we want to hear about it if there’s more cases of this or things like it:
    http://generationz.eu/post/54455404954/when-you-say-delete-does-facebook-delete

    We are a brand new project, independent but funded by the EU, our objective is to defend the interests of young people on social networks and educate with regard to strategies for safe use. If you want to have your voice heard and debate these issues further please share your thoughts and experiences on our blog, or with us on Twitter or Facebook.

    Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/alec_ste
    Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/alec.ste

    Our pages our fairly vacant but that’s because we’re only just getting started so now is a great time to have your voices heard, your data is your data and we want to help you defend it!

  40. Pingback: Turns out deleting Facebook posts doesn't quite mean "deleting" | Digital Trends

  41. I don’t use facebook that often either but I don’t really mind on deleting what is already there. I guess I am somewhat shameless. There is bad poetry I wrote there and I am a guy. So, why don’t I erase it? I find it amusing. That issue existing on facebook is kind of sad. Maybe you want to try some other options like making the status updates private or something.

  42. Hey Laura, sorry if I am spelling it wrong, the problem you encountered is a very common problem in Pakistan, the country I live in, because we don’t have any facebook representatives for our country. Not just me, but a couple of friends have faced this problem of not only just deleting posts but photos and videos too , only for them to appear after some period of time. Also the delete your facebook account (not deactivate) option has been used by me a couple of times and i still received emails from facebook and when i tried logging in it was as if i had never left,
    so you are not alone in this problem and regard. sadly we can’t stop using it because it functions as groups and communities to interact with work colleagues and university fellows.

    • laura says:

      Hello, I’m sorry to learn that so many other people are in the same situation. I think your comment gives a bigger perspective on the problem than the particular case I confined myself to in describing my own experience. I suspect the majority of users are careful about what they share on Facebook, and even more so for precisely the situation you describe.

  43. Reblogged this on The Ebonyte Blog and commented:
    Really true.

  44. Pingback: Turns out 'delete' doesn't quite mean the same thing to Facebook as it does to you | Phoenix News

  45. John Smith says:

    What I did was defriend everyone and changed my name to John Smith.

  46. Pingback: Visto nel Web – 86 | Ok, panico

  47. Pingback: Why I stopped using Facebook | Binders Full of Codes

  48. Tulipgirl says:

    Hello. I too am so aggravated with facebook. Way back in 2010 and 2011, I posted stuff on my wall about a guy who I dont want to discuss with people. I went back and “thought” I deleted these posts years ago and here it is August 2013, and they are all still showing up. I’ve deleted them or so I
    thought I did both online and on my phone. I’ve got people on my friends list who I don’t want being able to sift back through my wall and read. I also recently sent a friend request to someone who hasn’t accepted yet and I’m so ashamed and embarassed that ^^he may be able to read this stuff I thought I deleted if ^^he accepts my friend request. I’m a private person and realize I gave tmi years ago but I should be able to delete my big mouthed mistakes from three years ago. This is why I now never give status updates unless they are totally positive and nothing too personal, especially if I can’t delete stuff. Be careful what you post everyone. I really just don’t want anyone reading posts I deleted.

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  51. Matt Chappel says:

    I actually DID delete my account… But guess what? I still get emails from facebook constantly and can only unsubscribe from one “type” of email at a time…. Meaning, whenever they decide a certain email fits a classification for which I have not unsubscribed, they can continue emailing me forever.

    So, yeah, even if you delete the account, these people still email you…. Which kind of defeats the purpose of attempting to cut contact with them.

    • laura says:

      That’s the first time I’ve heard this. Thanks for pointing it out. In my opinion, it amounts to nothing less than harassment.

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  53. Robert Rigsby says:

    It is getting harder and harder to delete your digital footprint,

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