Facebook owns Instagram and Whatsapp. Many people widely use these applications. Facebook is used to connect with your friends, family, and co-workers. But there is also a darker side to these platforms. The darker side includes privacy, security, political influence, and misinformation.
There is a huge difference between deactivating and deleting accounts. If you delete the Facebook account, it will not harm any data on Whatsapp and Instagram. If you want to delete all data from Facebook, Whatsapp, and Instagram, you will have to do it separately on all three platforms. At the same time, Facebook owns all these companies.
Why Delete Facebook?
Zuckerberg himself would not want his kids to use the platform. Even he uses safer alternatives like Signal. Facebook is not just Facebook.com; It also includes Instagram, Whatsapp, and many other companies.
Misinformation: The spread of Misinformation is a disaster. Platforms like Facebook helps to spread Misinformation. At the same time, the company claims to remove Misinformation from its platform.
Security: Security of user data is non-existent with Facebook. Facebook is suffering from countless data breaches. The most recent one affected half a billion people earlier this month.
Privacy: Privacy on Facebook is also non-existent. It does not matter what the toggles say. Facebook collects everything happening on your devices. Facebook has also been caught tracking people who do not have Facebook accounts.
Influence: The combination of poor privacy and Misinformation allows Facebook to influence public opinions, especially politically. This is a big problem for anyone who believes in a fair democracy.
Infinity Pools: Facebook is designed to be an addictive platform.
How to delete Facebook
You need at least a week of time to make sure you do it properly. Request your data; this impacts a lot. Requesting your data may take several days. You should at least make two announcements that you are leaving the platform. This is the time you will tell people how to reach you before you leave the platform. Tell them the reason why you are doing this to make a more significant impact.
Below are the steps to delete Facebook data and accounts. You need to follow these steps.
Delete Facebook App from Your Phone
Deleting the Facebook app from your device is the first step. It will not do anything to your Facebook account, but it is to make Facebook out of your reach. Deleting the app will not delete your Facebook account. You can access your Facebook account from any browser.
Deleting Facebook from your app will stop you from logging in again accidentally. Now you need to find any alternatives to chat with peoples around you.
Remove Facebook Support from Third-Party Apps
Many Third-Party Developers offer you to sign up using a Facebook account. There are much higher chances that you have used one of these apps to sign up with a Facebook account. You will need to log in to these apps and disconnect them from your Facebook account. There is no problem doing that. The process is straightforward. Just log in to these apps, and in the profile section, remove the Facebook account. You will need to create a password to use these services.
But how will you know that which apps are using the Facebook account to offer their services? You can easily find the apps linked to your Facebook account by using Facebook. Follow these steps:
Sign in to Facebook.
Select Setting Option
Go to Apps and Websites
You will see the list of apps using your Facebook account.
If you feel any issue disconnecting the Facebook account, you can contact the App security team. They will guide you to do so.
Request A Copy of Facebook Data
You can request your data stored in your Facebook account. You can download it to save on your device. This process may take some days, so you will need to wait for few days, which may be more or less than that.
If you want to save your uploaded photos and videos in high quality, you will have to select them before requesting a copy of your Facebook data. To do so, you will have to change the media quality to high from the medium.
Follow these basic steps:
Log into Facebook from any browser.
Go to Settings
Click on Your Facebook Information
Select View besides Download Your Information.
Check all the boxes under the Your Information Section.
Select date range to All My Data
Set the format to HTML.
Click on Create File.
Facebook will send you an email when your data are ready to download.
Permanently Delete Your Account
Now you have done all the basic steps, and you are good to go with deleting your Facebook account.
Open Facebook on any browser.
Select Settings & Privacy, then
Click on Settings.
Click Your Facebook information.
Click Deactivation and Deletion.
Choose Permanently Delete Account
Click Continue to account deletion.
Click Delete Account, enter your password.
Click Continue.
If you want to delete your account after submitting the request to delete the account, you will have 30 days to do so. You can log in again and cancel your deletion request before 30 days. Your account will be restored. Facebook will take 90 days to permanently delete your data from Facebook servers.
To cancel your deletion request, you just need to sign in to Facebook from any device. You can use your phones, PC or Laptops to do so. You will see the option to cancel the deletion request on the front page. Select Cancel option.
Common Issues & Solutions
Some valid concerns are:
It is too difficult.
Professional Life.
Connections.
I never use it.
These are some of the valid reasons that prevent people from deleting Facebook. Leaving Facebook is not easy. It is going to require some power. Thousands of people have already deleted Facebook, and they never said that they regret it. Deleting one platform is better than nothing if you remove Instagram but not Facebook; that is still a step toward your goal. If you cannot delete it, reduce the problems as much as possible. You can utilize privacy settings to reduce the risk. Removing Facebook from as many devices as possible is also a good solution.
If you think that you are not using these platforms now will not affect you, then there are many parts you should consider. Facebook still has all the data you have previously uploaded to these platforms. You do not have to use Facebook for them to track you. Many apps you use on your phone have Facebook analytics. Some third-party apps share data with Facebook. They can tie data between people you know together using a networking effect.
If you have family groups, workgroups where they communicate using Facebook, then ask these people or groups to use alternatives. There are other alternatives which work better than that. The Signal is a platform to replace Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp.
Do you think Facebook spreads misinformation, is bad for privacy and security, and pushes political ideologies and many other issues? Always remember the change in the world starts with you. You cannot get two billion people off of Facebook without those taking the first step toward it. Every step will be a step closer to freedom in your life. Consider deleting Facebook now.
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