For many people, Facebook is a great way to keep in contact with your friends and relatives.
Recently though it’s become clearer on how Facebook, along with many other social media platforms, wants to use the personal data they gather for advertising.
Much of that advertising is not just on your own profile but is pushed onto the feeds of your online connections.
If this is too intrusive for you, it may be time to shut down your Facebook account. This is not easy but it can be done, here are the basic steps. Note that if you have a business page, you must not delete the administrator account.
Backup your Facebook information
There may be information you want to keep about your family and friends, not to mention things you’ve uploaded to Facebook. So first, download your data.
To do this, click on Account Settings as shown below, then select download your Facebook data where you’ll be taken to a button asking you to create an archive. Press that and an email will be sent to you within an hour containing the next steps for downloading your data.
Disable applications
The next step is to disable the applications that access your Facebook account. If you don’t do this, your profile will remain “live” as these programs will keep refreshing it.
Go back into Account Settings and select Apps on the right hand side of the screen.
Once in the Apps settings, delete each application by selecting edit and click Remove App. Do this for every application.
Delete your account
The next step is to formally deactivate and delete your account. In the settings screen go to Security Settings as shown below;
The deactivate your account will then take you to a screen asking you why you’re leaving, give whatever reason you choose and click confirm. If you don’t access the account in 14 days it will be be deactivated.
Note that this doesn’t mean you’ve deleted all of your Facebook data. To do this, you’ll need to follow the procedure on Facebook’s How do I permanently delete my account page.
Delete Apps and cookies
Unfortunately that’s not the end of the leaving Facebook process, you’ll have to uninstall all mobile phone apps that access Facebook and clear cookies from your web browsers, instructions for which are below. Note that when you delete cookies, saved passwords to websites will be lost and you’ll be prompted to re-enter them.
Removing Cookies from Internet Explorer
Removing Cookies from Firefox
Removing Cookies from Chrome
Removing Cookies from Safari
With all of this done, and as long as you don’t attempt to log back on for two weeks, you will have killed your Facebook account.
The difficulty and complexity in doing leaving Facebook illustrates the concern many have with social media sites and their privacy aspects.
While Facebook and other services like LinkedIn, Twitter and Google+ may add value, it is important to keep in mind these services are harvesting and re-using information on your web and computing habits. If you aren’t comfortable with this, then deleting your accounts is the best course of action.
