Is it time to say goodbye to your Facebook account? Facebook has a long history of privacy missteps, but the discovery that data was gathered from 50 million users without the users’ permission made people more aware of the volume of data collected and sold by Facebook. As a result, many people are deleting their Facebook accounts and calling for others to do the same.
Many people are deleting their Facebook accounts and calling for others to do the same.
When you delete your account, Facebook gives a 14-day grace period, during which you can log in to Facebook and immediately re-activate your account. If you really want to be rid of it for good, you want to make sure that you do not accidentally log in during the grace period. Many apps, such as Instagram and Twitter, will automatically log you in to Facebook if they are linked to Facebook. So step one is to unlink apps from your Facebook account.
Even if you are keeping your Facebook account, it could be a good idea to unlink apps you no longer wish to use. There is no reason to keep them around and continue giving them access to your data.
To review and unlink apps from your account:
- Tap the down arrow at the top right of the page, then click on Settings
- On the “General Account Settings” page, click the “Apps” category in the menu on the left
- You will see a few apps listed. To see all connected apps, click “Show All” to list all of the apps connected to your Facebook account
- To delete apps, mouse over the app and click on the “X” to remove. Then click the blue “Remove” button in the pop-up box
If you are not ready to walk away from Facebook, but want to take a break while considering your options, you may temporarily deactivate your Facebook account. You won’t lose any of your contacts, photos or other data, and can return and reactivate the account at any time. To deactivate your account, log in to your Facebook account then:
- Tap the down arrow at the top right of the page, then click on Settings
- Click “Edit” next to “Manage account”
- Click “Deactivate your account” near the bottom of the page
- Enter your Facebook password, give a reason for leaving, check the Email Opt-out button, then click “Deactivate”
- When you are ready to reactivate your account, sign in to Facebook
If you are absolutely certain that you want to permanently delete your account, go to the Delete account page on Facebook and click on “Delete My Account.” Be aware that this is final and cannot be reversed after the 14-day grace period.
If you want to view all of the data in your Facebook account and/or download it to your computer, you can create an archive file. Just log in to your Facebook account then:
- Tap the down arrow at the top right of the page, then click on Settings
- On the General Account Settings page click the link at the bottom that says “Download a copy of your Facebook data”
- Choose the data you wish to download, the click “Create file”
