
How to Delete Facebook and Instagram from Your Life Forever - doener
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/10/technology/personaltech/how-to-delete-facebook-instagram-account.html
======
lkrubner
Many people on Hacker News saw my earlier post on trying to delete Facebook:

[http://www.smashcompany.com/philosophy/facebook-activated-
my...](http://www.smashcompany.com/philosophy/facebook-activated-my-dormant-
account-and-it-wont-let-me-deactivate-it)

I have an interesting follow-up: they have rejected every ID that I have sent
them. I took a photo of my passport and sent that to them, and then they
rejected it. Same with my drivers license.

I'm left in limbo: I want to delete my Facebook account, but they insist that
I first have to send them an ID, and they reject all the IDs I send them. They
reject that ID with a form letter, so I'm not clear why exactly the ID is
being rejected.

~~~
brewdad
Why would anyone, trying to preserve their privacy and limit PII collection,
send a passport page to a company like Facebook? It feels like a variation on
the Nigerian prince scam where they keep asking for more info to see how far
you will go.

~~~
jhowell
Except there were no Nigerians [https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-
now/2017/12/30/ni...](https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-
now/2017/12/30/nigerian-prince-email-scammer-louisiana/992073001/)

~~~
PhasmaFelis
No one ever said there were.

You may be surprised to learn that he wasn't a prince, either.

------
ProfessorLayton
While I'm no longer a Facebook user myself, I do understand that deleting the
two largest social networks from your life can seem daunting and detrimental.

If you find deleting those accounts too drastic, I highly recommend simply
deleting the apps, and moving to browser-only consumption _and browsing those
sites in private mode_.

It doesn't cut off your social networks, and if you want to check them, you'll
have to login every time. Simply having to do that will naturally wean you off
the networks, with the huge added benefit of not being tracked all the time!

~~~
Rjevski
If you do this just make sure you don't have any of their apps left on your
phone, this includes WhatsApp (in fact the only reason FB bought them is to
use it as a backdoor against privacy-conscious people who might uninstall the
main FB apps or deny them permissions like contacts/location).

~~~
godelski
Funny thing. I had basically no problem deleting my facebook. Everyone I still
actually wanted to keep in contact I have their numbers (and quite a few I
moved to Signal). But some people are EXTREMELY persistent about WhatsApp.
Only 2 people on Facebook told me that messanger was the "only" way to contact
them. Of my friends that use WhatsApp 90% of them just won't move.

Maybe things will change when Facebook actually starts monetizing the app.

~~~
Rjevski
> Maybe things will change when Facebook actually starts monetizing the app.

I feel like Facebook is happy with the status quo, leaving WA ad-free in order
to have a persistent backdoor in people’s lives so they can use it to
“improve” ads on their other platforms.

WA seems too valuable to burn with ads and stuff.

~~~
SmellyGeekBoy
> WA seems too valuable to burn with ads and stuff.

Burn? They keep cramming Facebook and Instagram with more and more ads and
both of those platforms are still going from strength to strength.

------
Rjevski
One missing step is to completely block all Facebook IPs (their entire ASN
actually) at the network level to make sure none of their toxic sludge reaches
your network, and spyware embedded in other apps (like FB’s “free” analytics
products) can’t continue to stalk you either.

I wish ISPs provided a “pest control” button that automatically blocks this
kind of vermin at the network level.

~~~
SOLAR_FIELDS
It would be nice if ISP's offered the option - and they certainly easily could
- but you can do it yourself if you want:

[https://pi-hole.net/](https://pi-hole.net/)

I just set one up on Friday. I bought the $75 Raspberry Pi Canakit (has
everything you need except a USB mouse and keyboard that you need to
temporarily plug into it while you set it up) and had it up and running in
less than an hour for my entire house.

It makes a noticeable difference, notably on page load performance especially
on my iPhone, which has always had a sorry adblocking situation.

Looking at the stats at [http://pi.hole/admin](http://pi.hole/admin) (the
internal URL admin page) it's blocked 5,151 requests out of 27,168 (~20%) in
just two days.

Next step is to set one up in the cloud as a VPN/DNS server so I can route my
outside-of-home traffic through one as well.

~~~
danpeddle
you mention that your iPhone has a poor adblock story - Mozilla's focus seems
to do a great job for me (when enabled as a content filter for safari), and
was one of the primary reasons I personally moved to using iOS.. did you give
that a go?

------
nprateem
I deleted my IG a few days ago. I needed my degree in CS to manage it.

First, you can't delete IG from the app, only on the web. But, to log into the
web site you need a password, which you probably don't have since you probably
signed up with FB Connect. So then you have to go through the "forgotten
password" route, log into your email to click a link to actually create a
password. Then you can log into the IG web site to delete your account. When
you finally do that, you keep seeing these dark patterns to reactivate your
account. It took me about half an hour.

It seems to me they've clearly tried to make deleting your IG account
technically possible but as difficult as possible for the average user. I'm
almost surprised they don't require you to send something by snail mail it's
so difficult.

~~~
personlurking
Going through the process when someone else signs up using your email is also
not a walk in the park, even though they have "not your account?" link at the
bottom of their Welcome email.

This happened to me at different times on FB and IG, and it was such a drawn-
out hassle that I just went the other route, signing in with my own email,
saying I forgot password, getting a new one, then deleting accounts that way.

------
jrace
I deleted (not deactivated, deleted) my account 90 days ago. It was stated
that in 30days my account would be deleted.

I tested it today, went to facebook and was able to log in. My account still
had pictures that I manually deleted prior to deleting my account

Not cool.

Will try again in 31 days..

~~~
pard68
On a whim I tried to access my Facebook account, which I deleted approx. two
months ago.

It's still there and when I logged in it was as if nothing had changed... Take
two...

~~~
pelario
I wonder if it is possible to find a legal action...

------
joeblau
This is so wild, I'm thinking back to 2005-2007 when people were doing
everything possible to get on Facebook. Waiting for Facebook to open up to
their school or network so they could sign up and start updating their
profile. Now there are so many attacks on the company politically,
technically, and socially that I wonder if Facebook will be able to recover
its trust with the community?

~~~
lkrubner
That cycle sums up all of my emotions about the Internet, from wild-eyed
optimism and hopeful idealism circa 2000, to the modern reality where I feel
heart broken, disillusioned, and disgusted with the way it all turned out.

~~~
rhizome
IRC is still the same. Better, even.

------
thelittleone
One thing to consider when deleting your FB account is that someone can then
create a new profile with your name and pics and start adding your friends
etc. Most will believe it's you and accept. It's a goldmine for personal
information gathering for social engineering attacks.

~~~
joshbetz
Being on FB doesn’t prevent that.

~~~
biql
I believe you should be able to report the impersonator although I don't know
whether or not it actually works.

~~~
thelittleone
You can only report it if the legit account still exists.

------
pcurve
I actually use neither but I waste just as much time online on other sites,
youtube, HN, news sites.

sometimes I wonder if it would be better for me to actually use Facebook and
Instagram MORE, just like everyone else.

For many, it has become the norm in how one shows interest in other people.

Anyway, I tried browser plugins and they're surprisingly effective for me. But
I always manage other means to distract myself with, that is ultimately non-
productive and unfulfilling.

I clearly have problems. lol.

~~~
sotojuan
I definitely hurt my social life a lot by leaving Facebook. I don't try to
hide it by saying "only real friends that will send me mail or call me
matter!" because as someone in their mid 20s/college, a lot of serendipitous
social stuff happens on Facebook (maybe now IG). Some people I've met even
give you their IG username rather than their phone if they just met you.

It is entirely normal to have friends you aren't super close with but still
want in your life. A lot can be reached through iMessage/SMS but a ton of
stuff happens on social networks nowadays.

~~~
thsowers
> It is entirely normal to have friends you aren't super close with but still
> want in your life. A lot can be reached through iMessage/SMS but a ton of
> stuff happens on social networks nowadays.

I am in a similar position, and have no social media. To echo some of your
points, when I first left FB there were some events that I missed out on that
I would consider high importance to me. At first, I was shocked, I tried to
hide it with the "real friends with mail me!" excuse, but I was still
"disappointed" (for lack of a better word)

I'm lucky enough where a observant extrovert in my social circle noticed my
preferences, and now they email/text me about most events. I try to keep in
touch with the rest of my friends over phone, and people i'm not super close
with over email. I don't do the best job, but I don't miss FB

~~~
eksemplar
I did that for a while, but it’s also feels kind of shitty to be the one
friend everyone has to go out of their way to invite to everything.

I know it’s a chicken and egg situation but I eventually rejoined Facebook to
not be the hassle.

I don’t use any of their apps though, and I only check fb a few times a week
to see what events are happening, and if someone messages me it’ll have to
wait until I’m on the desktop version.

------
nickwalton00
I've found that the most effective strategy was to unfollow (not unfriend)
everyone except close friends and family. Now my Facebook feed only has people
I care about and takes me max 5 min a day before it's the same content.

------
murph-almighty
I've been taking a slightly different approach after the breach. For context:

1) I was one of the lucky 1 million who had their token compromised but their
account "wasn't accessed".

2) I've had this account since middle school, so there's a lot of interactions
there that are at best use a lot of txtspeak and at worst are a reflection of
values I no longer hold.

3) Most of my family is on FB, and a lot of my communications with my friends
are at least partly reliant on the existence of FB.

I made the decision to pull all my data as this author suggested, and try to
systematically remove content that was outdated or just looked bad, regardless
of whatever content filter I had applied to it. In effect, this breach ruined
my trust in the individual filtering that I had applied in the past for a
number of my posts.

With that said, removing posts one by one is a HUGE pain because it forces you
through a "Are you sure" dialog for EVERY POST YOU WANT TO DELETE. Comments
were less evil- there was no dialog but I would have vastly preferred a
"checkbox then delete" type of experience- bonus points if they let you check
off by month to trim down on clicking.

I intended this to be a weekend project and I've already realized this "audit"
is going to take much more time than I intended.

------
jeromebaek
The 30 day grace period is a dark pattern. It's user-hostile and relies on
Facebook's addictiveness to get you back on Facebook. Just like with quitting
any drug, quitting Facebook causes powerful withdrawal symptoms and for some
it might be almost impossible to go the full thirty days resisting the urge to
log back in.

So here's a solution:

Change your Facebook password to something you will not remember, like a
random sequence of 20 characters. Copy this string. Click "delete Facebook".
Paste the string when it prompts for your pw. Now copy something else,
overwriting your clipboard. If you use an advanced clipboard system manually
delete all clipboard items. Reboot your computer.

Now you won't be able to log in even if you want to, and Facebook will be
safely gone from your life in thirty days.

~~~
zizee
Would you not be able to simply request a password reset?

~~~
jeromebaek
Probably you'll be able to reset your password. In my case I deleted my phone
number associated with my account to make recovery as difficult as possible.

I should say it's not a complete solution, just another line of defense
against the urge to log back in.

------
atum47
To be real, how do you keep in touch with your friends and family? I live
2100km away from them. God damnit, I wish to get rid of this cancer, but I
just can't.

~~~
nilkn
I call every once in a while. People I don't feel comfortable calling I
probably shouldn't be stalking on Facebook anyway. And having even a 30 minute
phone conversation every six months with an old friend will do amazing wonders
for that relationship that years of vapid Facebook shadowing won't.

(And if the above makes me seem old, I'm young-ish: 28.)

~~~
rhizome
I find that fb stuff sometimes doesn't translate well into real life
relationships when I don't interact with the person often. For ongoing friends
it's just another source of smalltalk, but if I don't see them often I don't
know if I can make fun of that one facebook affirmation gif.

------
dewey
I really wish there was a good alternative for Instagram. I use it a lot to
post my pictures, mostly as a journal to look at old memories. For browsing
pictures and sharing with people it still has a relatively uncluttered
interface. Lately they added a lot of cruft like IGTV that I would disable if
I could but I haven't found a better app so far. Maybe Flickr?

~~~
pmlnr
There is, it's called a blog. See
[https://ownyourgram.com/](https://ownyourgram.com/) .

~~~
dewey
A site with a unchanged bootstrap Stylesheet is hardly what I would could a
good looking interface or alternative unfortunately.

------
patientplatypus
Call me old fashioned, but if you don't like the services, just stop using
them.

I have a facebook account - I haven't posted there in 5-6 years. What data are
they going to harvest from me that would be at all useful or relevant? I guess
they can find the fake email address I signed up with 15 years ago if that's
useful for them.

~~~
rhizome
You may not have posted in a long time, but have you logged in?

------
ggregoire
What about Whatsapp?

~~~
titaniczero
This.

WhatsApp is much worse. Here in Europe we use it like TOO MUCH. We just can't
switch to Signal, we need it to text/chat friends, people we don't know yet,
businesses, etc.

~~~
athrun
Why do you think WhatsApp usage is worse than IG and FB? (honestly asking).

While I’ve no doubts that people at FB are actively thinking about ways to
monetize it, right now the product doesn’t seem to contain any of the toxic
crap from IG/FB (ie: algorithmic timelines, attention-grabing dark patterns,
promoted content, etc).

I’m wondering if it’s somehow already there and I simply haven’t noticed :(

~~~
briandear
Because WhatsApp is part of Facebook and I don’t trust Facebook. It’s that
simple. People act like they are different companies. You can’t use WhatsApp
and then be intellectually honest when you criticize Facebook. They are one
and the same. The goal with #deleteFacebook isn’t to stop using Facebook, but
to diminish the power and nastiness of Facebook the company. You can’t do that
if you are using WhatsApp: you are feeding the same beast.

------
Yizahi
In a current western world state I think it is impossible to avoid your PII
collected and sold (or as they call it - "bartered"). Every single company is
probably doing it, starting with FAANG and down to the tiniest startups.
Therefore deleting two profiles (already populated btw) out of hundreds will
do nothing to your privacy. You will still continue to use Google or Twitter
or Apple or any cell/broadband operator or whatever else, and they will still
continue to sell/exchange your info, or just use it themselves.

------
gaius
Without a cast-iron guarantee that your shadow profile is also gone, deleting
your FB just removes what minimal handle you had on their file on you. I
stopped using FB a year ago, but I just walked away. If GDPR has teeth I want
there to be no ambiguity about which account I am referring to.

------
logan5
Does anyone have advice on how to export the saved links from Facebook? It is
not included in the archive that they let you download. I have way too may
saved links over the past few years. They are the only thing that is stopping
me from deleting the account.

------
slantaclaus
At what point will posts like these begin to be called, in reddit parlance,
“shitposts”? I can’t count how many of these identical articles I’ve read in
the past 6 months. Give it a rest

------
yannis7
I've personally deleted NYT from "My Life Forever" \- couldn't be better off

------
lsalvatore
Anyone find it weird they put Evernote in the trash?

