With over 2 billion monthly active users, Facebook is one of the most popular social media platforms in the world. However, many users decide they want to leave Facebook for various reasons like privacy concerns, too much time spent on the platform, or general unhappiness with the network. When users decide to leave Facebook, many wonder if they can fully delete their Facebook account and all associated data. Let’s take a look at what happens when you try to delete your Facebook account and whether it’s possible to completely erase your presence on the platform.
What happens when you delete your Facebook account?
When you decide to delete your Facebook account, you have two options: deactivate or permanently delete. Deactivating your account puts your profile into a dormant state, where no one can see it but all your data remains on Facebook’s servers. If you log back into your account within 30 days of deactivating, your profile will be reactivated with all data intact.
Permanently deleting your account initiates a process where your profile, photos, posts, and all associated data are removed from Facebook’s servers. Facebook claims this happens within 90 days of requesting permanent deletion. Some data like messages you sent to friends may remain visible to them after you permanently delete your account.
Here’s a quick rundown of what happens when you permanently delete your Facebook account:
- Your profile, photos, posts, videos, and everything else you’ve added is deleted
- You can no longer log into your account
- Your name and profile picture are removed from posts you’ve been tagged in
- Friends can no longer tag you in new posts
- Messages you’ve sent to friends remain visible in their inbox
On the surface, it seems like everything is erased. But is it really possible to remove your entire existence from Facebook?
Is all your data really deleted from Facebook’s servers?
When you permanently delete your Facebook account, most of your data is removed from Facebook’s servers within 90 days. However, some data may remain stored in Facebook’s systems for the following reasons:
- Backup copies: Facebook regularly backs up data in case of emergency outages. Your data may still exist in backups after you delete your account.
- Log records: Server logs that record user activity are kept for analysis and debugging purposes.
- Third-party apps: Any data you shared with third-party apps may still be retained by those services.
- Legal obligations: Facebook may retain data they are legally required to keep, such as for tax purposes or lawsuits.
While Facebook claims to delete almost everything within 90 days, they don’t guarantee a complete removal of all your data. In their Data Policy, they state:
“We may retain certain information about you as required by law or for legitimate business purposes after you delete your account.”
Facebook is intentionally vague about what data gets retained. The reality is they likely keep some records of your account’s existence and activity, even after you delete it.
Does Facebook really need to keep your data?
Facebook argues that keeping some deleted user data is necessary for the platform’s functioning and legal obligations:
- Product development: Understanding how people used Facebook helps them improve features and build new products.
- Legal obligations: Facebook points to tax auditing and lawsuits as reasons they may need records of user activity.
- Security: Logs of account activity can help identify suspicious behavior and cyber threats.
While these may be valid reasons, many privacy advocates argue Facebook doesn’t need to retain extensive records and should put limits on the data they keep.
Some counterarguments to Facebook’s stance:
- Product development doesn’t require keeping detailed logs of individual user activity.
- Legal obligations can be met without keeping comprehensive archives of all user data.
- Security protections shouldn’t require holding data indefinitely for billions of users.
Facebook likely takes a broad interpretation of what data they need to retain. But in reality, there are probably smaller subsets of data they could keep to fulfill their obligations.
What can you do to limit data retained by Facebook?
Since Facebook keeps some data after you delete your account, here are a few things you can do to limit the amount retained:
- Minimize your use of third-party apps: Avoid connecting third-party apps to your Facebook account. Data from those integrations may continue to exist separately.
- Limit past posts: Go through your Facebook history and delete old posts, photos, and other content you don’t want lingering in backups.
- Remove tags: Untag yourself from friends’ posts in your profile to dissociate your name from that data.
- Download your data: Downloading everything you’ve posted on Facebook can help you understand what they have stored on you.
- Permanently delete: Actually going through with permanent deletion will eventually remove the bulk of your data from Facebook’s systems.
While you have limited control over Facebook’s data retention policies, taking the above steps can help reduce the amount of personal data lingering after you delete your account.
Are there any alternatives to completely deleting Facebook?
If you don’t want to fully delete your Facebook account, here are a few alternatives that may help increase your privacy:
- Deactivate your account: This removes your profile page but retains all data in case you return.
- Increase privacy settings: Limit viewing of posts, photos, contacts, and other info to friends only.
- Remove tags: Just like before deleting, untag yourself from friends’ posts to dissociate your name.
- Unlike pages: Be cautious in liking pages as it associates your profile with interests.
- Limit third-party app permissions: Don’t connect any unnecessary third-party apps.
While still not as complete as deleting your account, these steps can help you fly under the radar a bit more on Facebook.
Should you permanently delete your Facebook account?
Here are some pros and cons of completely deleting your Facebook account:
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You’ll have to weigh the pros and cons based on your personal situation. For many people seeking more privacy, though, permanently deleting their Facebook account is the right choice despite some of the downsides.
Conclusion
While Facebook claims to delete your account and data when you permanently delete your profile, the reality is traces of your information likely persist in backups and logs. You can take steps to minimize this retained data by removing tags, deleting posts, limiting third-party app connections, and not over-sharing personal details while you use Facebook.
Ultimately, if you want to eliminate as much of your Facebook presence as possible, permanent deletion is still your best option. Just keep in mind a few remnants may linger indefinitely unless Facebook changes their data retention policies.