

Ask HN: Is Facebook secretly keeping accounts open? - hawkharris

I scheduled my account for permanent deletion five weeks ago. The process is supposed to take only two weeks. Yet my data is still there, and I was able to reactive the account.<p>Has anyone else experienced this issue?
======
pekk
They keep plenty of information on you even after the account is 'deleted'
(not deactivated) - this much is evident from recommendations, etc. if you
ever create a new account a year from now, showing up again as if it never
went away

Facebook is private surveillance

~~~
junto
They also don't properly delete content that you choose to delete. Photos,
check-ins and posts are just archived. I've been through and deleted
everything manually on my timeline back to 2007. I noted that certain pages
still showed the "counts" of content that had long been deleted:

\- [http://i.imgur.com/zdwTl.png](http://i.imgur.com/zdwTl.png)

\- [http://i.imgur.com/27RFG.png](http://i.imgur.com/27RFG.png)

I can only assume that a Facebook developer missed the SELECT * FROM checkins
WHERE userid = @param0 AND deleted_flag = 0. Deletes are UPDATE checkins SET
deleted_flag = 1 WHERE checkinId = @param0.

That developer oversight showed me that Facebook were misusing the term
"delete". Every since then I no longer post anything on Facebook. I just keep
the account to lurk and use it for OAuth testing on my own apps.

~~~
andrewhillman
I just noticed FB makes it really tough to clear your Activity Log. Every
search/action is stored and if you want to remove items you have to delete
them one by one. Clearly this was an evil design decision. It's no value to
them, if they can't use your activity log.

------
aroch
I do believe if you (or an app you've linked) logs in to facebook during those
two weeks, the timer resets. Make sure none of your mobile devices, browser
plugins, and link-apps are doing so

~~~
sp332
Fakeer: I know you said this, but you're hellbanned.

It's probably easier to head to
[https://www.facebook.com/settings?tab=applications](https://www.facebook.com/settings?tab=applications)
and revoke all the permissions, so they can't authenticate as you.

------
fallse7en
I've got a friend that had her account deleted for awhile and then logged into
Spotify; apparently, Spotify silently reactivates Facebook accounts if you use
the same email for both services.

~~~
askew
Had exactly the same happen - which was rather annoying. Spotify's loss was
Rdio's gain.

~~~
evv
I was a big fan of Rdio until I realized they publish a list of your entire
music collection publicly under your username. I found that out by googling
myself one day, and I closed my Rdio account immediately thereafter.

~~~
misener
Rdio offers "Protected Accounts"

[http://blog.rdio.com/us/2012/09/now-available-on-rdio-
protec...](http://blog.rdio.com/us/2012/09/now-available-on-rdio-protected-
accounts.html)

------
simantel
I deleted my account six months ago or so and just tried to log in, which
failed. Is it possible you just deactivated your account rather than scheduled
it for deletion? Could another app have authenticated as you and reset your
countdown?

~~~
r00fus
The second part is a possibility - did some OAuth token usage prevent
deletion?

One idea would be to change your password (ie, invalidate all OAuth tokens
[1]), then re-issue the deletion process.

[1] [http://stackoverflow.com/questions/7532496/facebook-user-
cha...](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/7532496/facebook-user-changes-
password-and-invalidates-the-access-token)

~~~
hawkharris
Yeah, that's a good point. Might have been a third-party app that canceled the
deletion.

------
PencilAndPaper
YUP. I created a fake account with a new name and email. IT figured out who I
was pretty shortly. Dont know how, but there are many ways they could do this.
For one, I added similar friends, and used a similar name.

Its the facial recognition that really creeps me out though, and the fact that
cops always are recording cameras at community events and protests. Supplier
meet consumer.

------
Dirlewanger
Why do people think the largest social network is going to make it so easy for
them to delete their stuff? Your data is money to them. They don't give a crap
about your privacy rights. Deleting/deactivating your account is doing nothing
but making a tick in their database from visible to invisible.

~~~
alanh
> _Why do people think the largest social network is going to make it so easy
> for them to delete their stuff?_

Oh, I see you’re fond of the game “blame the victim.”

Facebook did not do what the OP was told they would do.

It’s worth debating whether we think we should have the right or ability to
remove ourselves from FB at some point.

How are you helping by insinuating anyone who wants something other than the
status quo is stupid or naive?

------
avallark
I think the only real solution to this is not to deny information to facebook,
but to trivilize the information given to it. Fb already has all our data, now
whether you delete it or not, they'll have it, either as visible data or as
archives of back ups, they have it. What we should however do is what Adam
Huxley suggested in brave new world that by filling in so much irrelevant
information, you make it possible to drown out the valuable information.

I wont classify, I wont categorise and I won't tag, I will not create albums,
I will just keep uploading everything everywhere. I will try face-detection
with different people and my cat. You get the idea.

If enough people over use / abuse the fb with loads of insignificant info,
FB's game will backfire.

------
mdhgriffiths
I deactivated last year for 4 months.. Then logged in and began exactly where
I left off.

------
lgsilver
FB's data structures are hugely messy and decentralized. There's so much
information that even FB can't reliably delete all of it for an individual
user. Instead, they erase or hash the IDs that represent you in the system,
insuring that the links between your data and the front-end are broken.

The jobs that do this are scheduled, and every time you log in you create new
IDs and nodes in the cache, which means they have to rerun the processes that
erase the data. The delays are probably related to that.

------
kachhalimbu
I deactivated and scheduled to delete it (the option which was so well hidden
that time) my account 3 yrs ago and created a new one but with same email
account earlier this year. FB magically showed me all my 190 friends in the
friend suggestions. I guess they never deleted any of my information.

~~~
true_religion
Friendship is a symetric relationship.

It could be the data that X email is/was friends with Y is data relevant to Y
and thus retained even if X deletes all of his/her info.

------
marcelftw
Use Fakeblock

~~~
evv
Its a real app!

[https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/fakeblock-virtual-wood-
block...](https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/fakeblock-virtual-wood-
block/id656864485?mt=8)

And for the confused, you're missing out:

[http://arresteddevelopment.wikia.com/wiki/Fakeblock](http://arresteddevelopment.wikia.com/wiki/Fakeblock)

------
AsymetricCom
HN secretly closes accounts so probably not an ideal place to ask.

