Why It’s Harder Than You Think to Delete your Facebook Account

Facebook has evolved over the years, unfortunately focussing more on businesses and less on community engagement. Many Facebook users are getting fed up with Facebook when it prevents them from interacting and sharing their experiences with their friends.

Privacy and security are two of the most important considerations when someone is online. Yet the more we learn about how companies collect and use our personal data, the less likely we want to continue using them.

Facebook has been in the news recently during their appearance in Congress. They had a previous relationship with a company called Cambridge Analytica. It was determined that they stole personal information from over 50 million Facebook users without permission. While this wasn’t directly Facebook’s fault, they certainly are responsible when they grant third party users access to the site. Now people are worried about the business of harvesting data from its users.

While it can be expected that some data would be collected, after all Facebook is a free service, many users are concerned. There is something new called the #deleteFacebook movement, formed by WhatsApp founder Brian Acton. Ironically, Facebook owns that too.

Today, there are over 2 billions users on the planet. Facebook is the most popular social media tool. Where else can you go to see what your friends and family are up to? You can send text messages, and you can participate in live videos. You can post and share music, videos, photos, and nearly anything else that can be digitized. You can keep in touch with anyone, anywhere in the world, as long as they get can online.

For many people, if they simply deleted Facebook or removed the app from their devices, it would leave them feeling disconnected with the world and their friends and family.

Many people also rely on Facebook for money. They must post on Facebook as part of their employment. They participate in Facebook Marketplace to bring in a bit of spare cash—bonus! Facebook has no user fees like Etsy or Ebay do—and people who run small businesses find it the best marketing tool. Even independent musicians and artists find that Facebook is a great method of promotion—though Facebook is hiding content in exchange for ads which is somewhat annoying. And let’s not forget Facebook’s original purpose—it was a dating tool used at the university where Zuckerberg went.

If you leave Facebook, where do you go? Plus, there are many apps and online platforms that connect through Facebook. You’d then have to go and re-register on all those sites.

And even if one million people today shut down their Facebook accounts, would anyone really care? Facebook will go on collecting and selling data. All the online businesses do that, it’s not just them. Even without Facebook, you are still being tracked online through targeted ads.

If you want to go ahead and delete Facebook then that’s up to you. But if you’re doing it for safety and security, you’ll need to consider how the other sites are tracking and saving your information too. At least Mark Zuckerberg is owning up to it and is committed to following the latest internet regulations.