How to check if Facebook really deleted my account after deactivation?


Recommended Posts

Two days ago, and after a lot of consideration, and after downloading the zip of my profile, I deactivated my Facebook account, and want everything deleted from Facebook servers.

Reading around, I found that Facebook leave the account data on their servers in case someone decide to come back, and the advice is not to have any interaction with Facebook for 14 days to have you account really deleted off the servers. but how can I be sure it is deleted after that time?

The problem is that I can't try to login, as when I do so, it signs in saying "Welcome back", and reactivates everything. What i expect is a message that my account is deactivated, and an option to enable or not, but this is not what happens.

Any ideas?

for the moment, to be sure that in no case i do activities related to facebook, i added Facebook urls in my windows "hosts" file to redirect them to 127.0.0.1, and deleted all cookies.....

  • 4 months later...

As i mentioned in my post in October, I deactivated my Facebook to have everything cancelled and removed from Facebook servers, but still they have my data:

I tried now to do a forgot my password, put only my username and they sent to 2 email addresses that were configured with my account the recover procedure to follow to reset my password..

WHAT CAN I DO TO HAVE MY ACCOUNT DEFINITIVELY REMOVED !?!

As i mentioned in my post in October, I deactivated my Facebook to have everything cancelled and removed from Facebook servers, but still they have my data:

I tried now to do a forgot my password, put only my username and they sent to 2 email addresses that were configured with my account the recover procedure to follow to reset my password..

WHAT CAN I DO TO HAVE MY ACCOUNT DEFINITIVELY REMOVED !?!

You can't. Plain and simple.

As i mentioned in my post in October, I deactivated my Facebook to have everything cancelled and removed from Facebook servers, but still they have my data:

I tried now to do a forgot my password, put only my username and they sent to 2 email addresses that were configured with my account the recover procedure to follow to reset my password..

WHAT CAN I DO TO HAVE MY ACCOUNT DEFINITIVELY REMOVED !?!

You can't really, anything you upload to facebook becomes part of their property. It's in the ToS so check that next time before clicking I agree.

They say they will try to delete your data but obviously tags and other such information will remain even though it may not be linked back to your original account. I think your comments are deleted as well however?

why do you care so much? Just stop visiting the site, and stop worrying about it. If you aren't active.. you aren't accepting friends.. if you were smart you locked down your account so anything people could see was blocked. It doesn't need to be removed off the face of the earth.

As i mentioned in my post in October, I deactivated my Facebook to have everything cancelled and removed from Facebook servers, but still they have my data:

I tried now to do a forgot my password, put only my username and they sent to 2 email addresses that were configured with my account the recover procedure to follow to reset my password..

WHAT CAN I DO TO HAVE MY ACCOUNT DEFINITIVELY REMOVED !?!

why dont you re-activate your account, change all your data to new false values (i.e. change your name to steve smith, 123 fake street, etc) then de-activate it again

if your really worried, change your email to a brand new one, just make a new gmail or hotmail account for this purpose

I'm going to take a gander and say their database can not work like that.

Imagine if you could actually delete your account, removing all of your photos, comments etc. It wouldn't just effect you. It would effect your friends who you tagged in those photos, the comments you left on other people's walls, pictures and statuses. It would be like a virus, almost.

You may be able to remove your profile, but the pictures and such, I don't think you can

You can't. Plain and simple.

You can, but it's very well hidden. Plus they make it sit on their server for a few weeks, because [sarcasm]it takes a huge datacenter a long time to delete records out of a database.[/sarcasm]

As far as checking goes, just make a bogus account. If you try and log in to your "delete pending" account, it'll automatically reactivate it again, making you start the wait cycle over again.

As for why, why not. It's the person's personal information, not Facebook property, TOS be damned. (If they own it, they can pay my f'ing mortgage.) If they wan't it removed, that's their right. They have serious issues respecting people's privacy,you shouldn't have to jump through hoops to delete your own data.

  • Like 2

Facebook can hold your data up to 2 months afaik, so it's best to simply change your password to some random generated value, and never log back in.

I'm going to take a gander and say their database can not work like that.

Imagine if you could actually delete your account, removing all of your photos, comments etc. It wouldn't just effect you. It would effect your friends who you tagged in those photos, the comments you left on other people's walls, pictures and statuses. It would be like a virus, almost.

You may be able to remove your profile, but the pictures and such, I don't think you can

You can delete anything you personally added on your profile. Or anything others added on your profile. You cannot edit/delete things others added, or your comments/posts/pictures that you have posted on others profiles/walls.

Sign back in and manually remove all your information, posts, pictures and anything else. Now deactivate your account again and your done. Also set your account privacy settings to only you and hide yourself from any search.

I'm going to take a gander and say their database can not work like that.

Imagine if you could actually delete your account, removing all of your photos, comments etc. It wouldn't just effect you. It would effect your friends who you tagged in those photos, the comments you left on other people's walls, pictures and statuses. It would be like a virus, almost.

You may be able to remove your profile, but the pictures and such, I don't think you can

It does work like that because you can delete photos, comments etc yourself. I think if you delete your account with that link above ^ it removes your photos and any comments you made or inboxes your name will change to "Facebook User" and any posts you was tagged in your name won't be linked to the profile, just plain text.

  • 5 years later...

Personally I don't believe that Facebook gets rid of everything after deletion.  That seems like a time-waster. And it just isn't a viable way for a database of their calliber ti work. So, I believe this to be a smokescreen to the user. In short, they lie. So, to answer the actual question: in my opinion, you can't. Whatever information you posted will be tucked away somewhere. Yeah, it's not fair. Yes, it's legal. Does Facebook care about the ethics of maintaining a user's dat a after they deleted their account? Not really. They are social manipulators, not productI've advetisers. Don't believe me. Think about when you went to deactivate the account? Immediately you were posed with a peer pressure emotional ploy, an attempt to exploit your emotions to keep you on Facebook,     "(these) friends will miss you." 

 

This is terrible. I've heard better peer pressure from my drunk uncle. Get real. Facebook is essentially an internet parasite. Can you make sure Facebook Deleted your data? I don't think so. Do they care? I don't think so.  They essentiallyare Data collectors, and not compensating the people who give their data away for free to Facebook to use as Facebook sees fit.  So, imho, you and I probably should stay off Facebook as long as possible

On Tuesday, February 15, 2011 at 11:00 AM, pixelpixel said:

Sign back in and manually remove all your information, posts, pictures and anything else. Now deactivate your account again and your done. Also set your account privacy settings to only you and hide yourself from any search.

Bad idea. This will restart the account and totally be contrary to what this person is attempting to do. Cold Turkey is the way to go.

47 minutes ago, Chado2423 said:

Bad idea. This will restart the account and totally be contrary to what this person is attempting to do. Cold Turkey is the way to go.

That or don't use it...

 

Edit: Thread jump, sorry, didn't notice...

  • Nick H. locked this topic
This topic is now closed to further replies.
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
  • Posts

    • Dude, im talking about simply disable it from settings app. Because of the eu regulation, you could disable it here for years.
    • One big question about Mars was answered thanks to Einstein's 100 year old theory by Sayan Sen Image via DepositPhotos Scientists at the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have calculated how time passes on Mars compared with Earth, adding detail to how timekeeping would need to work beyond Earth’s orbit. The study, published in The Astronomical Journal, found that clocks on Mars run an average of 477 microseconds, or millionths of a second, faster per day than clocks on Earth. A microsecond is one millionth of a second, a very small unit used in precise scientific timing systems such as atomic clocks, which measure time using consistent atomic behavior. This difference is not constant. Because Mars moves around the Sun in a non-circular path (an eccentric orbit, meaning its distance from the Sun changes over time instead of staying fixed) and is affected by gravity from other bodies, the daily difference can vary by as much as 226 microseconds over a Martian year. The study also identifies smaller repeating changes of about 40 microseconds per day linked to synodic cycles (repeating periods that describe how planets line up with each other as they orbit the Sun from different positions). These longer patterns affect how time differences slowly rise and fall. To make these estimates, researchers compared Mars with Earth and the Moon. The work looks at relativistic proper time (the time actually measured by a clock depending on its speed and the strength of gravity where it is located, as described in Einstein’s relativity). This shows that each world has its own slightly different “rate” of time. This becomes more important as space missions expand into cislunar space (the region between Earth and the Moon) and toward Mars. On Earth, time systems rely on atomic clocks and satellites, which stay closely synchronized for navigation and communication. The study is based on Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity, which shows that time is affected by gravity and motion. Stronger gravity makes clocks run slower, while weaker gravity makes them run faster. “The time is just right for the Moon and Mars,” said NIST physicist Bijunath Patla. “This is the closest we have been to realizing the science fiction vision of expanding across the solar system.” A day on Mars is about 40 minutes longer than on Earth, and a Martian year lasts 687 Earth days. But the main question is not just about days and years, but how fast time itself passes. An atomic clock placed on Mars would function normally, but compared with one on Earth, the two would slowly drift apart due to differences in gravity and motion. This requires careful calculation of what is similar to a time-zone difference across planets. Researchers modeled Mars using a reference surface and included gravitational effects from the Sun, Earth, the Moon, and other planets. This includes a multi-body gravitational system (often described as a three-body or four-body problem, where predicting motion becomes difficult because multiple large objects all pull on each other at the same time through gravity). Mars also follows a Keplerian orbit (an idealized elliptical orbit based on simple gravitational laws that assume smooth motion, before adding real-world disturbances from other bodies). In addition, the researchers accounted for solar tides (small changes in gravitational force caused by the Sun that slightly distort planetary motion and timing, especially in systems involving Earth and the Moon). These combined effects are described as relativistic proper-time offsets (small but measurable differences in elapsed time between locations caused by gravity and motion), which must be included when comparing clocks across planets. “But for Mars, that’s not the case. Its distance from the Sun and its eccentric orbit make the variations in time larger. A three-body problem is extremely complicated. Now we’re dealing with four: the Sun, Earth, the Moon and Mars,” Patla explained. “The heavy lifting was more challenging than I initially thought.” Although the differences are extremely small, they matter for navigation and communication systems that depend on precise timing. Even modern networks on Earth, such as mobile systems, rely on timing accuracy at very small fractions of a second. Communication between Earth and Mars currently takes about four to 24 minutes or more depending on planetary positions, meaning signals are not real-time. A shared and accurate time system could help future missions reduce confusion in navigation and data exchange. “If you get synchronization, it will be almost like real-time communication without any loss of information. You don’t have to wait to see what happens,” Patla said. Researchers note that fully developed interplanetary communication networks are still far in the future. However, understanding how time behaves across planets helps prepare for those systems. “It may be decades before the surface of Mars is covered by the tracks of wandering rovers, but it is useful now to study the issues involved in establishing navigation systems on other planets and moons,” said Neil Ashby. “Like current global navigation systems like GPS, these systems will depend on accurate clocks, and the effects on clock rates can be analyzed with the help of Einstein’s general theory of relativity.” Patla added that the results also help improve understanding of time itself under relativity. “It's good to know for the first time what is happening on Mars timewise. Nobody knew that before. It improves our knowledge of the theory itself, the theory of how clocks tick and relativity,” he said. Source: NIST, IOPscience This article was generated with some help from AI and reviewed by an editor. Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, this material is used for the purpose of news reporting. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing.
    • TeraCopy 4.0 Build 26 by Razvan Serea TeraCopy is a compact program designed to copy and move files at the maximum possible speed, also providing you with a lot of features. Copy files faster. TeraCopy uses dynamically adjusted buffers to reduce seek times. Asynchronous copy speeds up file transfer between two physical hard drives. Pause and resume transfers. Pause copy process at any time to free up system resources and continue with a single click. Error recovery. In case of copy error, TeraCopy will try several times and in the worse case just skips the file, not terminating the entire transfer. Interactive file list. TeraCopy shows failed file transfers and lets you fix the problem and recopy only problem files. Shell integration. TeraCopy can completely replace Explorer copy and move functions, allowing you work with files as usual. TeraCopy is free for non-commercial use only. For commercial use you need to buy a license. The paid version of the program includes the following features: Copy/move to your favorite folders. Save reports as HTML and CSV files. Select files with the same extension/folder. Remove the selected files from the copy queue. TeraCopy 4.0 Build 26 changelog: Added support for receiving files via the LocalSend protocol. Improved exception handling and automated bug report upload. Fixed several minor bugs and small memory leaks. Build 26 (June 24) Fixed a rare exception when a transfer completed. Features added since version 3.17: Enhanced speed graph. New multi-threaded copy engine. Support for copying to multiple targets. Queue system for managing multiple copy operations. Support for receiving files via the LocalSend protocol. TeraCopy entry in the modern Windows Explorer context menu. Integrated toolbar in the title bar. Why receive LocalSend transfers with TeraCopy? Handle file conflicts: Skip, overwrite, or rename files when a file with the same name already exists. LocalSend always creates another copy, which can waste time and disk space, especially when resuming an interrupted transfer. Filter unwanted files: Apply ignore lists or remove files manually before accepting a transfer, so unnecessary files are not downloaded. Better performance on fast networks: In tests over a 10 Gbps connection, TeraCopy received files several times faster than the standard LocalSend app on Windows. Download: TeraCopy 4.0 Build 26 | 14.5 MB (Freeware, paid upgrade available) View: TeraCopy Website | Screenshot Get alerted to all of our Software updates on Twitter at @NeowinSoftware
    • Briefly used Turbo Pascal (and Turbo C++) in 97 and soon after that I bought PC magazine that included a full version of Delphi 2. I still use Delphi today, some 29 years later.
    • Age of Empires Mobile comes to PC, here's how to carry over progress from your phone by Ivan Jenic Image: YouTube/Microsoft Microsoft just released Age of Empires Mobile for PC. The game, officially called Age of Empires Mobile: PC Edition, is available for free on Steam and Microsoft Store, almost two years after its initial release for handheld devices. Age of Empires is one of those franchises that entire generations grew up with. The original came out in 1997, and immediately got people hooked to building civilizations and crushing their enemies on the battlefield. However, the franchise today is a far cry from its roots, as Age of Empires Mobile is, well, a game optimized for handheld devices, and not a classic RTS title we’ve all loved for years. And, of course, it includes in-game purchases. The PC version is still a mobile game at its core, but it’s been optimized for desktop play. There’s mouse control, full keyboard compatibility, and a refined UI. Microsoft also refreshed the visuals with some 4k textures, so the game should look better on larger screens. The game supports Crossplay, so you can switch between your phone, tablet, and PC without losing anything. But linked progress doesn’t come out of the box, as you have to enable it first. Here’s how to link your progress: On your mobile device, open Age of Empires Mobile. Go to Settings (Gear icon) > Account. Select Bind Account and choose a sign-in option. Once you enable account binding, sign in on PC using the same method, and your progress will be accessible across all your devices. Xbox Game Pass subscribers also get a bonus reward pack on PC, which includes: 1 Monthly Pass Token 1 Custom Resource Chest 10 Universal 60-Minute Speed-Ups 1,000 Empire Coins Exclusive Player Portrait Frame You can find more info about Age of Empires Mobile: PC Edition, as well as download links, on the Age of Empires official website.
  • Recent Achievements

    • One Year In
      Philsl earned a badge
      One Year In
    • Dedicated
      Scoobystu earned a badge
      Dedicated
    • First Post
      Tom Schmidt earned a badge
      First Post
    • One Month Later
      D0nn13 earned a badge
      One Month Later
    • Rookie
      +ChiefOfNeo went up a rank
      Rookie
  • Popular Contributors

    1. 1
      +primortal
      458
    2. 2
      +Edouard
      177
    3. 3
      PsYcHoKiLLa
      124
    4. 4
      Michael Scrip
      79
    5. 5
      Xenon
      76
  • Tell a friend

    Love Neowin? Tell a friend!