Below are the reasons why I am deleting my Facebook account.

I enjoyed sending photos to Facebook (for family and friends to see) along with reading random information from random people in my timeline. This is not making me smarter (quite the opposite).

I know “echo chambers” on the Internet are making people dumber, I too am sick of blocking racist people online, am I part of the problem with modern society? What is worse using personal data to control people or knowing you can control people with personal data.?

FaceBook was free and I was the product, there is no need to lie to users.

Facebook: “This is their information. They own it”
BBC: “And you won’t sell it?”
FB: “No! Of course not.”

Please help this 2009 interview of Facebook’s CEO get seen by people who don’t use Twitter. Here’s a download link so you can pull and repost it: https://t.co/c32DmpVIig pic.twitter.com/quERsO5WZi

— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) March 27, 2018

I am deleting Facebook because

• I want to keep my families life private
• I don’t want all sides of government to take me for granted (and manipulate me with my own data)
• I don’t run a business and don’t need Facebook.
• Facebook is dying (it might bounce back but only by greedy investors looking for a quick buck).

• “The standard you walk past is the standard you accept”

The standard you walk past is the standard you accept.

— Tony Windsor (@TonyHWindsor) February 14, 2018

• Mark Zuckerberg’s hesitation to accept the problem is worrying (Elon Musk showed more leadership).
• Deleting my account may send a message to other tech companies to act (Google, Microsoft and Apple take note).
• I want to regain time (the number of parents staring at Facebook while kids are trying to get their attention is scary).
• FaceBook’s insecure data practices are making it too easy to destroy democracy.
• Etc.

Related News Items

Facebook ‘ugly truth’ growth memo haunts firm 

Cambridge Analytica: The data firm’s global influence

Cambridge Analytica files spell out election tactics 

The FTC confirms it’s investigating Facebook over its privacy practices

Cambridge Analytica, which uses ‘psychographic’ methods to persuade voters, is looking to open Australia office

Cambridge Analytica helped ‘cheat’ Brexit vote and US election claims whistleblower

Robert Mercer: the big data billionaire waging war on mainstream media – With links to Donald Trump, Steve Bannon and Nigel Farage – The rightwing US computer scientist is at the heart of a multimillion-dollar propaganda network (“This article is the subject of a legal complaint on behalf of Cambridge Analytica LLC and SCL Elections Limited.”)

The shadowy firm behind the Trump campaign coming to an election near you – “And in 2017, it wooed Australia’s Liberal Party, selling its brand of detailed voter profiling that can help political parties drill down into constituents’ lives and likes to win elections.”

Cambridge Analytica’s pitching tactics caught on video – Cambridge Analytica used data to build lists of peoples likes/hates/biases to help influence elections by showing said users things that may influence combined with other illegal activities like covertly sending in “pretty ladies” to politicians houses to then bribe the is disgusting.

Statement from the Australian Information and Privacy Commissioner on Facebook and Cambridge Analytica

A former Facebook staffer, Obama campaign boss reveal concerns about Facebook data

It is nice to see the Australian government are debating privacy laws following this – “We believe that political bodies should not have an exemption under the Privacy Act” and “Australians have a right to privacy. This right applies online and offline. They have a right to know why their personal information is being collected, how it will be used and who it will be disclosed to. They have a right to ask to access it for their personal information, and they have the right to make a complaint about an entity covered by the Privacy Act if they believe their personal information—and this is critical—has been mishandled.”

Great leadership by Senator Jordon Steele-John

How to Download your personal data from Facebook

Enter Your Facebook Password

Extract the Zip file contents and view the index.html file to view your Facebook collected contents.

What did my Facebook Data contain?

• All of my contact information
• Every advertisement I have ever clicked on
• Advertisers that have my contact list
• Keywords that are assigned to me to help drive advertisements.
• What events and venues I have visited.
• All of my conversations with friends
• All past IP addresses and sessions with FaceBook along with the device details (geographic data can be reversed from this)
• etc

How to delete Facebook

Click here to find out.

Future

I am still the same person (but not on Facebook)

“Matter. How tiny your share of it. Time. How brief and fleeting your allotment of it. Fate. How small a role you play in it“. – Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

Done

I have deactivated my Facebook account

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Revision History

v1.4 Added “You Will Wish You Watched This Before You Started Using Social Media”

v1.3 Deleted

v1.2 Added ink

v1.1 Added more links

v1.0 Initial post