Are you completely done with Facebook? Then you can delete Facebook or have your account deactivated. We show you how to do that here.
Deactivate your Facebook account
Deactivating your Facebook account puts it on hold, so to speak: Your profile will be removed from the site, as will most things you've posted on Facebook (messages will remain, though), but Facebook will keep your data for in case you decide to come back. You can always reactivate your account by logging into Facebook.
To deactivate your account, log in to Facebook and navigate to Institutions. Select General and scroll in the window General Account Settings down to you Manage account sees. Choose To process and tap the option Deactivate your account.
Facebook will try to persuade you to stay by showing you photos of your Facebook friends and asking why you want to deactivate your account. Once you've told Facebook why you don't want to be friends anymore, click the button Deactivate and then Deactivate now, and Facebook will deactivate your account.
Delete your Facebook account
If you delete your account, it's really gone completely: You can't log in again to view or copy anything you've posted on Facebook, and if you want to use Facebook again, you'll have to start from scratch.
Facebook recommends that you download a copy of the data you have published on the site before deleting your account. Open the settings menu on Facebook while logged into your account by clicking the gear icon at the top left of the page. Then select Account Settings and search the page General nasty Download a copy of your Facebook data and click on the link. You will then be guided through the process of downloading an archive of all your Facebook data.
The company doesn't immediately make it clear how to delete your Facebook account, but to do so log into your Facebook account and go to Facebook's account deletion form. There you will begin the process of completely deleting your account.
Click in the form on Remove Account and confirm your password. Click one last time Remove Account, this time a button with an exclamation mark in front of it. Now your account is deleted from Facebook and no one can visit your profile anymore.
Note: Once your Facebook account is gone, you have 30 days to change your mind. After that, it's really gone, so you should only delete your account if you're absolutely sure you won't be using Facebook again.
Account blocked
It is also possible that your Facebook account is blocked. This usually happens when you don't behave according to the rules of the social media site. A block of your Facebook account is usually not temporary, i.e. if you do nothing, your account will remain blocked and will be deleted over time . What can you do? We explain this in detail in this article.
Cambridge Analytics
After the Cambridge Analytica scandal two years ago, several people have decided to delete their Facebook accounts. What happened?
Facebook made headlines after it came to light that the personal data of millions of American users had been misused to conduct political campaigns. Facebook allowed information from some 50 million users to be collected for research purposes on the condition that the data would be deleted afterwards. That didn't happen.
The data was acquired by researchers Christopher Wylie and a Cambridge University academic through an app called thisisyourdigitallife, which you could log in to with your Facebook account. The researchers not only obtained the data from the hundreds of thousands of users of the app, but also from the users' friends.
Instead of erasing the data obtained, the Cambridge University academic sold the data to Cambridge Analytica - a data analytics firm that helped launch Donald Trump and Brexit campaigns, among other things. According to whistleblower Christopher Wylie, the data was used to build models that "played on the inner demons" of the individuals whose data the company had.
Documents show that Facebook already knew at the end of 2015 that Cambridge Analytica had the data in its hands. However, the social platform subsequently failed to warn users or attempt to recover the data. When The Guardian and The New York Times said they would publish an article about the Facebook data breach, Facebook tried to get ahead of the scandal by publishing an article saying that Cambridge Analytica had been banned from the social platform because of the not erase obtained data. It is not clear whether the data has since been deleted.
In short: Delete or deactivate Facebook account?
Very briefly summarized:
Do you want your Facebook account deactivate?
- Login
- Go to Institutions
- Select Your Facebook data
- Scroll down in the window
- Select look at Bee Deactivate and delete
- Choose To process
- Choose the option Deactivate account
- Confirm with Continue to Deactivate account
Do you want your Facebook account remove?
- Login
- Go to //www.facebook.com/help/delete_account
- Then choose Remove Account
