Did You Delete Your Facebook Account?

i am strongly considering deleting my facebook account in protest. A good friend,Jodi Rosselli Shulga,who plays the game "Mafia Wars" with me had her account disabled based on,what I consider,mistaken and false accusations. She has presented proof and this has been ignored. She is a very high level player who has put a lot of time and energy into her account.She has been told her account will be permanently disabled. I am outraged.I have been online very little in the last month as a result but also note that 4 other very good and honest players have had their accounts disabled as well. Any appeals on my part have been met with either form letters or silence.

Did not even consider it. Social media is evolving and the mis-steps and mistakes we make as it evolves should not precipitate a knee jerk reaction.

Facebooks' responses were both timely and appropriate as we all discover the boundaries of what and how this technology can be used and best serve the community at large.

I *thought* about pulling the plug, but didn't.

If they continue to make boo boos which annoy the web community (Facebook redesign etc) which result in revolts, then I will leave.

Interestingly enough the actual delete page you've referenced above hit the delicious home page mid week. (63 bookmarks at time of writing).

I think they need to learn their lesson, and start communicating with the community (the community being as much of Facebook as Zuckerberg is) before making radical decisions such as this.

Paul.

I decided to delete my account and was glad, that FB turned the deletion into a real deletion, not only some kind of discontinuation.
Actually this decision was overdue and triggered by the TOS-Thing. When it came up I recognised that I didn't do much with Facebook, it appeared some kind of boring compared to other social media stuff, so the decision to delete my account was not a big thing to do.

I also never considered it. I feel the collaborative efforts of those who joined the group to protest really caught the attention of CEO Mark Zuckerberg and I think that with the younger generation of social media-based sites (and the people who are in charge of them), they seem to be more in-tune and also involved with the community that supports them and the same community who will let them know when they disagree with a certain action. Facebook's response was definitely timely and appropriate.

Regine

Since you didn't use it much, was there any impact to your social interactions? Did anyone notice, or care?

The only content that concerned me was my photos as I am not a die hard FB user. The photos I loaded were from my portfolio and could be valuable. I was horrified by their change to TOS and removed all of my photos. I WILL NOT be replacing them anytime soon.

I did delete/deactivate my account, but mostly because I never really used it anyway. What surprised me however is that I'm not convinced anything was actually deleted, as I was presented with information that stated (for the most part) "if you want to come back, just log-in".

So was my account deactivated/deleted as I was led to believe, or merely logged out of?

The blurred line there disturbs me a bit.

Not yet or it didn't come to my ears. But with most of my contacts on FB I'm also in contact via other channels, so it's no big thing missing.
I guess this is due to my "Friends adding policy": I only add peopla I met in RL or know well enough through various networks.
When I recognised FB as boring I also realised that I didn't make any connections through FB, it was only about collecting those I knew from somewhere else.
What I liked all the time was 1) to share photos I could mark friends on and 2) generating my friendwheel to see how my network is connected with each other.
The latter showed that I was a kind of gatekeeper for some others who were not that much connected. But since there was no interaction on FB I think they're not missing much. Also because I like it to introduce my network to one another personally when I recognise that people should know each other. This is worth much more than any applications recommendation and renders real value to my network :-)

Mark, I'm curious, ask some of your previous Facebook friends to search for you and see what they find. Please report back to us.

I wonder if there's an 'artifact' if your account still there.

As I understood, the Account is discontinued for 14 days and after that deleted if there's no further login. BTW I deleted all my stuff before deleting the account.
Also curious on Marks experiences ...

I am thinking of deleting my facebook account. Not so much because of the ruckus of the changed TOS, but it seems to have outlived its usefulness. True: a number of my friends are still on it - but it seemed to have plateaud. Whilst there was a time when Facebook was the de-facto way to send out messages and sorta "mass update" everyone, it seemed to have waned: the novelty, it seems, has worn off amongst my friends - who are the main reason why I am in it anyway. I also experimented with "selling" inside facebook - unused books, old CDs - thinking that perhaps, it would be easier to sell to friends or at least, in a channel that required "real names"; it was not entirely successful.

The thing about the changed TOS? It didn't really matter that much to me - or perhaps, I didn't understand its ramifications fully.

Will I delete it? Probably not. I'll just probably be a 'ghost' on facebook - a once-a-month or once-in-two-weeks user.

What would happen without facebook? Nothing much. There's still email - and the phone.

I seriously considered deleting my account. What I *did* do was delete all photos I cared about, and write a lengthy email to Facebook's Copyright department instructing them that I had deleted my photos in order to protect my copyrights, and therefore they retained NO rights to my photographs, and should they try to use them, I would vigorously defend my copyrights.

Facebook's retreat from their ill-conceived TOS won't convince me to repost (or ever post again) photos to Facebook. I'll stick with SmugMug and Flickr where I can retain all rights to my work and use Facebook only for pointless inane drivel -- about all it seems suited for at this point.

My *main* use for Facebook is to keep family and friends updated during family 'situations' where it's just too hard to send email that includes everyone. I can post an 'update' or note and leave it at that. Other than that, Facebook is so over. :-)

I deleted my account. Forgive my linking rather than recapping here; I'm pretty tired of this subject at this point.

http://www.craftypod.com/2009/02/16/farewell-fa...

I'll see what happens after a period of 14 days, but I honestly don't recall the information on the deactivation screen indicating such. It was just something along the lines of "...to reactivate your account, login using your old username and password..."

That's a logout, not a deactivation.

I have never been a big fan of facebook. It's clunky and has the same retarded interface it had when it was just for school kids.
I do have an account there, I never use it though, cept when I get a notice that someone wants to add me. then I sign in add them and leave. There is no ability to explore there. and that of all things makes it suck..
I have always called it the "anti-social network".

I did delete my Facebook account http://agingreluctantly.com/2009/02/16/deactiva.... I really did not use it that much, except to keep in contact with a couple of old friends and some family members. I haven't really noticed a drop in my online presence ability to contact others. I like and use Twitter a great deal, LinkedIn is more along my style and I like to read a variety of blogs more than being on Facebook anyway.

I have to believe that there was an actual thought process behind the TOS change and what it was, I wasn't sure (but it didn't seem to be along the lines of "do no evil") and that they made it arbitrarily...just didn't give me good vibes...I guess that is what bothered me. What will be the next change that they impose on their patrons.

I don't mind a TOS that is weighted in favor of the provider, that is expected especially when the service is free, but when it takes away all my rights, that goes a bit too far.

So in my eyes 3 strikes and I am done. Haven't missed Facebook at all since I deleted my account.

It would take an awful lot to get me to create another Facebook account...not saying I will never do it, just that it is very unlikely.

Harold

I did not delete it, but did basically remove all the apps, including the integration with Twitter for status updates. It basically becomes an event management system now, that's all.

Me and Bill Gates quit in the same week, about a year ago. I'd joined for social networking but how can you turn down a business contact? So my FB profile became more and more bland - LinkedIn is better. Also there's no vampires vs werewolves (yet) on LinkedIn.

Well, I am leaving...it's not because of the TOS, but I think it's not that useful. I also think their first big privacy blunder (Beacon) isn't likely to be their last, so...there's no value for me.

I sent out an email to close friends & business contacts that I'm deleting my account at the end of the month, so they know other ways to find me.I got back responses about how it's funny that this site that lets us all "stay in touch" is actually just providing a semblance of contact & communication, and is pretty empty, compared to RL.

I couldn't agree more.

I deleted my account because of privacy concerns. I'm not a legal expert, but given that FB has had multiple issues like this, it made me unwilling to trust the company any further. I spent about an hour deleting my account, first removing all friends and then deleting all my photos, etc. Only then did I go through the steps of canceling my account because I had read FB puts your account in an inactive state (instead of purging all content) when you ask to cancel because FB wants to make it easy for you to return. I think people are just beginning to grow aware of the information that online companies are collecting about them. In a few years there will likely be standards and regulation, but until then I would rather play it safe than sorry.

I'm surprized at how few people actually left, compared the the scare-mongering traditional media felt the need to pull. Most of those who did appear to have done it by lack of any things to do.

I'm still mulling it over. I've already tried to do it this last spring just because there was no value from the service. Now there is still hardly any value but I don't have any other service that lets me connect with the same people.

I've put a definitive date on which I will decide if I leave permanently from the service of the 28. I have a week to mull it over but they still haven't been able to add value. I honestly would rather have my info on a secure, fiscally, service that one they may only last a few more years.

Right now I'm most likely leaving the service.

I removed most of my photos from FaceBook some time ago as I wasn't happy with the T'a&C's; I now post links to my Flickr account instead. The only other content I use is status updates, and I'm comfortable with the T'a&C's there.I find FaceBook perfectly useful for staying in touch with friends and family this way, so have kept my account open. For anything more valuable / sensitive than that, I'd use a different tool anyway.

Jeremiah,

I did not delete my account because I knew the outcry would have them reverse their policy and I did not want to lose some of some personal connections I have there. Of course, I also knew that the lack of an opt-in for policy changes would likely nullify the TOS policies in a real pinch.

I did, however. think about what to remove, and took down my blog widget from the space. Other than conversation, I don't really use the service for some of the reasons you pointed out.

Best,
Rich

Jeremiah

I deleted my account after the Beacon debacle. This is what I received from Facebook customer services:

"We no longer have any record of an account at this address. It has been erased from our servers and you will no longer be able to access it."

I have stripped my Facebook account to the bare walls.

It is now a placeholder to forward people to my personal blog.

Photos and video and content will remain there.

I realize Facebook plays an "important" role to those who don't understand how to use the web properly and, in many cases, has grown to equal the internet for many people. So I won't totally leave, but I sure as hell won't place my content there.

I'm with Steven, commenter #1.

There's no way I'd ever delete my Facebook account. I was cool with their TOS when I started mid 2007 and am more than happy for my content to be propagated all over the Facebook planet and beyond. ;)

My philosophy is I never, ever share anything online anywhere that I wouldn't want on the front page of the NYT, found in a Google search, or proud of my kids/grandkids to see in the years to come.

Facebook are not going anywhere. They are one of the giants of the future. And though Mark Zuckerberg tends to take risks, he's quick to listen and improve.

I certainly observed the strong mass reaction with the recent *slight* modification to the TOS. I think mostly folks misunderstood the implications. I blogged my thoughts here: http://whyfacebook.com/2009/02/17/do-facebook-r...

Cheers,
@marismith

I have not deleted my Facebook account yet. I've got my profile pretty slim as far as critical information. Only an email. No phone number, screenname or anything. And I took off all of my questionable pictures and quotes a long time ago. I

So if they were to ever own my content, I'd be a pretty boring person.

I deleted my account,despite it being a great vehicle for natter & chat and picture sharing. I had joined way back when it was spare and nice and not filled with fairy garden type tripe.

Upon starting the delete process, I ran into another reason why I had been increasingly irritated by facebook; I was forced to tell them why I was leaving in order to leave!

Other networks suit my purposes better

~heatherlynn

Absolutely. Facebook abused the trust of their users and I think they are going to lose a portion of their following as a result.

No. Why would I? In my opinion taking actions in such a rush is really not a solution. While joining the Facebook everyone has to keep in mind the possibility of their personal data being used by some 3rd party. I guess that, for security reasons, it's more important to select WHAT information you share with others, not only if you share them.

I hate to admit it, but I love FB. It helps me stay in touch with people I really care about, but am not able/willing to spend the time to talk with them each week. It's great knowing who is doing what, and I just like that kind of thing. It's a personal life, not a professional life thing.

I'm with Mari Smith on the whole "oh my delete my account FB is awful" thing. From what I can tell the people complaining are delusional if they think that stuff they post to the internet remains their property and disappears when they delete it. Hasn't anyone heard of archive.org?

Besides, if you read some other companies TOS you would be appalled. One major, worldwide site has something along the lines of "We reserve the right to distribute and sell your contact information to anyone we want to". Yes, it's true. And when I asked the founders of the site about it they said "Oh, we'd never actually do that". Yeah, right.

I never considered deleting my account, but did give a lot of thought to what I'll post on my Facebook page moving forward. I also spent a great deal of time reconfiguring my privacy settings after reading this article from AllFacebook.com: http://www.allfacebook.com/2009/02/facebook-pri.... Some great tips on there.

Social media and networking is still so new, so we're all bound to hit a few bumps in the road and learn from mistakes. I'm hoping that Facebook is extremely careful in considering the changes they make to their TOS or they do risk losing many participants. I have friends/family who did cancel or are strongly considering it after the last two weeks.

Hi!
Personally, I support Facebook position regarding this subject. I don't see any problem with that little change that was only a text evidence of what was being made in Facebook.
In my opinion, this has not been a legal or a privacy problem, but a public relations problem. Facebook has not been able to communicate the change and make it acceptable for the community. They should have created a communication plan to make sure this change was not going to be seen as it's been seen, actually.

I joined FB because I was curious to see what it is about, just as I did Twitter. Within a month, I started a group to volunteers to spearhead some welfare programs within my local community. That was 20 months ago and the group has grown to have activities in a few different cities. It was a very effective tool to hold discussions and make committee level decisions without having to meet physically until the actual event. Further, it was a powerful evangelizer and the network grew quickly while the events multiplied - it was also very easy for me to convince people to join FB to be in the loop of our group activity.

When we exceeded 1000 members however, the event tool disallowed us to send invitations to the entire group list and our growth suffered a period of stalemate. At that point a team of us (disheartened) built an independent website outside of FB to cater to the press and non-FB users, and also to commemorate our 1st anniversary by backing up our FB presence officially. As it was impossible to duplicate the function and effectiveness of the FB world, we continued using FB to manage event activities and kept our official site as an archive/corporate site.

I will not find a need to delete my account. This is a whole new era of communication and we are travelling further, time is more scarce, we have more friends too. For someone who is extremely busy, FB is actually very good for mindless catch ups. Who says meeting face to face can be more meaningful anyway? Sometimes a simple exchange on FB would suffice and probably the most we can afford.

As we continue to keep a friendly basis with our different tiers of friends on the web, we commit our real time towards priorities and the handful of important people in our lives. We get informed about parties and reunions, and the option is open whether we want to be invited or not. If we do, we respond, if not, just lay dormant.

We should not need to post up anything we do not want to share or am not proud of, at the end of the day the privacy issue is within our control. In a way, it is true that FB is a brand management tool of our personal life. It works very well for people who are in the limelight/celeb status and have no qualms about exhibiting part of their life for all to share - whether it is genuine or not. It becomes a management tool. For those who are extreme introverts, FB could be a gaming platform or one we use to keep involved in the life of those we want to be in, while we remain without contributing anything about our daily life.
Many grandparents and parents find FB useful to stay in touch with their children/grandchildren who lives far away or are studying abroad.

I use FB to broadcast email bulletins to the group members every fortnight or so and still manage to spearhead and lead program events from afar. How apt can it get for someone who is too lazy to meet people unless it is absolutely compulsory?

To answer some of your other questions, I had a friend who tested the system and got kicked off FB when he reached 5000 friends. He came back later with 200 real friends. I have not been updated of the details there so cannot offer you more information. While another celebrity friend deleted himself because he was bored, but came right back a few months later and started posting up videos of his tv programs (guess he found a better reason to continue). His account was immediately revived and I did not need to add him again. Do you have any insights to share about that?

Now there are also more privacy tools to use where we could categorize friends in as many groups as we like. Albums can be kept private and sharing is less dicey. My only question is, can family members or government authorities be allowed to access a deceased member's FB account with a court order? What happens to that content? Will the last status update be forever left that way? What are the possible scenarios there?

Thanks!

There has been alot of mentions of using Facebook to keep in touch with family and frinds. I am on Facebook, however for connecting the family I have set up a Ning social network which is centred around the whole family as opposed to the ego centric vastness that is Facebook.

This topic further explored here: http://virtualt.wikispaces.com/Transient+network

I 100% agree with the above comment - that we should not post anything in the public domain which we wish to keep private. As for storage - the search databases will have already archived multiple copies of everything ever posted.

Callie

I didn't even think of deleting my account. If they are keeping my information forever, deleting my account wouldn't prevent them from keeping it... it would only prevent me from accessing it. By keeping the account, i can be more proactive about monitoring what is out on the internet about me.

Why remove our facebook account ?

As they say, once you have uploaded files on facebook, they belong to them. So, actually, I think you can keep your account but just don't upload more files if you don't want them to be used in the futur against your agreement.

Didn't even think about it. The benefits I get from being on Facebook far outweigh any drawbacks those TOS would have brought. Easy decision.

I'm keeping my Facebook account. I'm not going to post anything online that I don't want to come back to haunt me anyhow so they can use whatever mundane info I've made available to them. I choose what they have on me.

Like most of the others, I will not be deleting my Facebook account. On the contrary, I actually created a new business page for a new venture I'll be starting next month.

I've been on the Internet since 14.4k modems were the norm and 33.6k modems were smokin' fast. I learned a LONG time ago, that if you don't want anyone to know about it, then don't put it out in cyberspace - anywhere - not even via e-mail to your closest friend.

I took down my facebook account after joining the group against the new TOS. This is because my facebook paid ads stopped running the day after I joined the group. These were ads that have been up for 3 months with NO problems, and they cited that they were in violation of a guideline, yet it was not. So that told me to just stop with facebook until they can get it right if ever.

I agree with Steven, the first commenter,

"Social media is evolving and the mis-steps and mistakes we make as it evolves should not precipitate a knee jerk reaction."

This is all part of the process guys. Facebook will figure it out, and, to be honest, who better than Facebook - the guy started his business to have fun, not necessarily to make money.

Until I see that Facebook is actively doing things that are harmful to others, I won't pull my plug:).

Thanks for this! The not-so-subtle issue is ownership. It is Facebook's website, not yours. It is not your profile, it is Facebook's profile about you. You only have very limited ability to contribute and only at Facebook's pleasure. Facebook has absolute control and therefore practical ownership of everything on Facebook, including your identity, associations and relationships. It doesn't matter what Facebook says in its TOS - they own it all anyway and can do as they please with it, period. Their only "mistake" was being too honest in their TOS, they've since learned to lie or keep quiet. Facebook is not your friend. As a structure for social interaction privately owned social networking is worse than medaeval. Our civil rights and liberties on Facebook and the like are zero. Shut your Facebook!

I totally deleted my account. First, however, I manually deleted every photo, post, and message associated to my account. The crappy new design was one reason. But the main reason was this nagging feeling I had that at some point my data was going to be scraped. I see Facebook as a massive invasion of privacy waiting to happen.

Nope...the problems (and potential problems) I associated with it far, far, far outweighed any possible benefits.

yes i deleted mine. they made it SUPER difficult but it's gone. (it literally takes like 2 and half weeks)

one, it's voluntarily giving up your personal rights and i don't like that.

two, the ads on the side panel would reflect what sites i had visited earlier that day (VERY creepy)

three, it's a big time suck

four, i'd rather communicate with my friends the authentic way.

Deleted my account a day after the new TOS agreement broke. It wasn't about privacy, though, I just resented how it had taken over my life. Months later, I have been disturbed that I don't miss it at all, not even a craving to return, I guess that's a testament to how useless it is.

I opened up a facebook account for my son and I used my email to confirm his facebook account. I need to get my account back with all my friends and applications on it. Is this at all possible please help me. I had farm town as an application and took me months to get to where I am on this game and it seems to be all gone please help me.
Stephanie Kendall

I delete my facebook account and would like to know how I can get back in. Would you please get back to me and let me know. Sent the message on matwat email. Thank-you Kathy Watters

Ran with facebook for over a year. Kept getting friend requests from people I didn't want to be friends with. Pushing Ignore did not help. After awhile my inbox was filled with facebook notifications
ok, facebook was filling my inbox with requests and crap. I turned off all notifications and it didn't stop. I deactivated my account...IT STILL DIDN'T STOP.
I emailed facebook and was given a BS response of how to manually remove all the content in my profile.
This didn't help with the email notifications.
At this point I got creative.
First I posted F*#@ FACEBOOK on my wall.
Then I changed my profile photo to a pornographic pic.
THen I deactivated my account and emailed abuse@facebook.com and told them my account has been hacked and I was offended by the pictures posted.

Within minutes my account was gone!!!!!


Feel free to repost this to help others

Whatever you think Facebook is or however much you hope it will 'evolve', it is NOT your website! It is not in your control and never will be, the way say, your own website IS in your control because you own it. Facebook totally owns and controls EVERYTHING at facebook.com. People! It is time to grow up and get your own domain name that you can use for your OWN website, email address(es) and mailing lists etc. Some things you have to do yourself. Voting is one, owning your own bank account is another, owning your own domain name is a third. Nobody else, certainly not Facebook, can own it for you! Never lend your identity to anyone! Inasmuch as you do, you cease to exist. If you're not in control of your identity, then what's the point in being you?

For the full story, see http://www.harmsen.net/shut_your_facebook.html

Just as an addendum to what I said,I ran across a character in the game she played called Jew exterminator about a week ago. Is this not abuse? I emailed Facebook,he is playing under the name Change Your Name now. Apparently given a second chance. Why weren't the other players?

Check out http://www.harmsen.net/shut_your_facebook.html for the reason why you should shut "your" facebook acccounts. The main reason is that it belongs to Facebook, not you. When push comes to shove, they control your identity, not the other way around. The terms area always theirs and subject to change without notice. It is Facebook's website, not yours. It wants to please its advertisers and make money. To have dignity online, you must get and use your own internet domain. If you don't know what an internet domain is and why you need one in order to avoid having your identity abused, you ought to. Facebook (like all similar proprietary online shenanigans) is an absolutely free online disservice.

I deleted mine over privacy issues, but tried to sign up again with a different name. Apparently you never actually delete your info. I got a message that said there was already an account associated with my email address. That was the account I thought I had deleted.

Facebook for me is a dangerous tool for someone who is too emotional, has any issues or is generally not happy with their lives. Hence my decision to delete facebook, you can say things to people who you really care about without thought, through chat etc. Im not sure how other people perceive facebook, however for me, too much information and not enough space. I need space, i dont need to know if for example someone has a grievance and with whom and especially if that person is me, how much of a distraction is that!! I also dont want the constant flow of information about other peoples lives, especially when i have my own i want to live it. How depressing is this, finding about people who are general arses having better lives then yourself or someone you regret not asking out is in a relationship with that ****** I might sound like a complete nutcase, i wonder how many people have lost their minds because of social networking, it's far too easy to lose yourself in them. Well, for me anyway. Suppose im crazy, i didnt allow myself too lose it and deleted my account. A closure, get on with life and regain a focus. You need some strength to get rid of facebook, i reasserted mine with a Facebook free life. Women hey, can't live with them nor without.