Why Facebook Is Really REALLY Creepy

As it turns out, when you deactivate your Facebook account, Facebook does not delete your account, as other social-networking sites do. As this article in the New York Times points out, once you sign up with Facebook, you may have a lifetime contract with it. Creepy.

I deactivated my Facebook account months ago. After reading the NYT article, I tried logging back in. And true enough, my account was still there, intact. (All Facebook had to do was send me a confirmation email for the reactivation.)

So I did what the article below suggested on how to permanently delete my Facebook account. If you value your online privacy, you should too.

How to Permanently Delete a Facebook Account

from wikiHow - The How to Manual That You Can Edit

Facebook only allows users to “deactivate” their accounts, leaving their information intact. But what if you want to permanently delete your account? Here’s how…

Steps

1. Make sure your Facebook account contains a contact e-mail address (such as Yahoo or Gmail).
2. Delete any college, high school, or work e-mail addresses listed in your Facebook account. Your contact e-mail should be the only address listed.
3. Deactivate your Facebook account.
4. Register using an e-mail address other than your contact e-mail (a college, high school, or work e-mail is fine).
5. Once you are signed into your new Facebook account, add your contact e-mail address to the account. Open the link in the confirmation e-mail that has been sent. This step will wipe out your previous Facebook account, rendering it inaccessible.

Tips

• If you really want to be secure, change the contact e-mail back to the new e-mail address and then remove your original contact e-mail from the list. Then deactivate the new account.

• It should be noted that quite how deep your deletion goes is highly questionable: does facebook still store your information even though youve destroyed your way of accessing it?

Warnings

• If you try to register using your contact e-mail address, Facebook will inform you that the address is currently in use. You must first register using an alternate e-mail address, then add your contact e-mail address when the account creation process is complete.

Related wikiHows

• How to Compose a Message on Facebook
• How to Check Your Message Inbox on Facebook

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