Why is Facebook not allowing me to remove my phone number?

There are a few potential reasons why Facebook may not be allowing you to remove your phone number from your account:

Phone number is used for account security – Facebook requires a phone number to help secure your account in case you ever get locked out. This makes it very difficult to fully remove a phone number.
Phone number is used for ad targeting – Facebook uses phone numbers provided by users to improve ad targeting. Removing the number impacts their ad business model.

Difficulty fully deleting data – With billions of users, Facebook likely has technical challenges fully purging user data like phone numbers from their systems.

While inconvenient, there are some workarounds like using an alternate dummy number to maintain account security without providing your real personal number.

Why Does Facebook Require a Phone Number?

Facebook first introduced the phone number requirement in 2018 as part of an effort to increase security and improve accountability on the platform. Here are some of the main reasons Facebook requires a phone number:

Account verification – Having a phone number lets Facebook verify your identity and confirm you are a real person with a valid account. This helps cut down on fake accounts.
Login approvals – If you ever get locked out of your account, Facebook can send a code via text message to your phone to verify it’s really you trying to login.
Security alerts – Facebook may text you alerts if it detects suspicious activity like login attempts from a new device or location.

2-factor authentication – Phone numbers enable 2-factor authentication as a second layer of security beyond just a password.

Overall, phone numbers help strengthen account security and reduce some types of abuse. However, this also means it becomes very difficult for users to fully delete their phone number from Facebook’s systems once provided.

The Role of Phone Numbers in Ad Targeting

In addition to security, phone numbers have become important to Facebook’s core business model – advertising.

Facebook aggregates user data like phone numbers, interests, and demographics to build detailed profiles about people. This data helps them micro-target ads to specific user groups that advertisers want to reach.

Some of the ways Facebook uses phone numbers for ad targeting include:

Cross-matching numbers – Facebook can take a phone number and match it to user profiles across Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and WhatsApp to piece together one unified ad profile.

Lookalike audiences – Advertisers can have Facebook create lookalike audiences modeled after customers who provided phone numbers.
Direct matching – Third-party data brokers match lists of phone numbers to Facebook user IDs which advertisers can specifically target.
Tracking sales – If a user provides their phone number for an online purchase, Facebook can use that to track conversions and optimize future ads.

Phone numbers have become a key data point for generating detailed user profiles and segments for micro-targeted advertising. This likely makes Facebook very reluctant to allow users to fully delete phone numbers.

The Technical Difficulty of Deleting Data

Given how core user phone numbers have become to account security and advertising, it poses technical challenges for Facebook to completely purge them from their systems.

A few of the technical difficulties Facebook likely faces in completely removing phone numbers include:

Database complexity – Facebook has thousands of databases and data warehouses. Tracking down and deleting every instance of a phone number across all of these systems is challenging.
Backups and logs – User data like phone numbers are regularly backed up for disaster recovery purposes. They also exist in login activity logs and other historical records.
Linked data – Phone numbers are cross-linked to other user profile data like emails and birthdates. Removing numbers could break these connections.

Platform integration – Facebook’s systems are deeply integrated with WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger, and other services. Full removal means digging into all of these interconnected platforms.

With billions of users and petabytes of data, Facebook was arguably not architected to allow for easy and complete deletion of user information.

Workarounds for Removing Your Phone Number

Given the challenges outlined above, getting Facebook to fully delete your phone number is unlikely. However, there are some workarounds users can take advantage of:

Use an alternate number – Provide Facebook with a Google Voice or Skype number instead of your primary phone number.
Delete phone number visibility – Adjust privacy settings so your phone number is not visible on your profile.
Remove number after download – Download all your Facebook data, then remove your phone number.

Deactivate account – Deactivating your account for a period of time can temporarily remove data like phone numbers.

While not foolproof, using an alternate number just for Facebook account security is probably the best workaround. This avoids providing your real number while still maintaining access to your account through SMS approvals if you ever get locked out.

Some users may understandably feel uneasy about Facebook having their personal phone number and not allowing them to fully delete it. But given the integral role numbers play across Facebook’s systems and products, complete removal is a challenge. Using an alternate contact number gives more control over how your actual phone number is used by Facebook.

Facebook’s Retention of User Data

Beyond just phone numbers, the example above highlights Facebook’s general reluctance to allow users to fully delete or remove their private information from the platform. A few reasons Facebook errs towards data retention include:

Supports advertising model – User data enables microtargeted ads which support Facebook’s ads-based business model.
Locks in network effects – Keeping all user connections and activity data locked into Facebook products sustains their strong network effects.

Inertia of large systems – At the enormous scale of billions of users, removing user data introduces significant engineering complexity.

Facebook is transparent that even after a user deletes their account, some data like posts or connections may persist in backups or aggregate data sets:

“It may take up to 90 days to delete all of the things you’ve posted, like your photos, status updates or other data stored in backup systems. While we are deleting this information, it is inaccessible to other people using Facebook.”

This illustrates how once massive amounts of user data are accumulated, engineering systems around the ability to delete it can be against the company’s interests.

Other Examples of Facebook Data Retention

Phone numbers are just one example of how Facebook takes a very conservative approach to removing user data. A few other examples include:

Deleted Facebook posts and photos – Posts and photos may still be stored in backups even after a user deletes them from the platform.
Instagram direct messages – Years worth of old Instagram direct messages remain stored and eligible for law enforcement requests even after a user deletes their account.

WhatsApp messages – WhatsApp users who obtained your phone number can still see historic messages you sent, even after you delete your WhatsApp account.
Facebook ad interests – Detailed ad interest profiles about a user are maintained even after they delete their Facebook account and no longer use its products.

In most cases, the only way to ensure removal of data like messages or interests is to have never provided the data to Facebook in the first place. They emphasize retaining data once collected, over any type of functional deletion mechanism.

How Long Does Facebook Store User Data?

Given Facebook’s data retention policies, a natural question is just how long does Facebook store user data for?

While they don’t provide exact timeframes, their guidance on data deletion gives some indications:

90 days – Deleted posts, photos and other user-generated content can persist up to 90 days in backup systems.

Years – Activity log data like IP addresses and login attempts are stored for over a year based on legal requirements.
Indefinite – Aggregated data sets around interests, advertising profiles, and non-identifying metrics can be stored indefinitely.

So while some data like certain activity logs are eventually deleted after a set period of years, other data like interests and behavioral profiles can be retained forever once aggregated and anonymized.

Facebook’s founded in 2004, meaning even with limited deletion, they are accumulating nearly 20 years of rich, historical user data at this point. Their systems are architected around data retention versus removal.

Pros of Facebook’s Data Retention Approach

While Facebook’s reluctance to allow users to delete data can seem unfair, there are some clear advantages to the company:

Strengthened security – Keeping user phone numbers, locations, and other signals helps Facebook quickly flag suspicious activity and lock down accounts.

Improved ad targeting – Retaining interests, purchases, and activity over time lets Facebook build detailed profiles to show users the most relevant ads.
Network lock-in – By retaining all messages, photos, connections, and group activity, it becomes harder for users to fully leave Facebook products.
Data asset value – The data Facebook accumulates on users is one of its most valuable long-term assets for training AI and developing new products.

Facebook likely sees retaining user data, even when inconvenient for users, as core to the competitiveness and defensibility of their business over the long-term.

User Concerns and the Risks of Persistent Data

While beneficial for Facebook, the company’s data retention policies and resistance to user deletion requests also carry meaningful risks, including:

Privacy issues – Users have less control over their privacy as personal data from years ago remains stored.

Security risks – Retaining data longer than necessary increases the risk of breaches that expose more user information.
Loss of trust – Overly persistent data despite user requests to delete can erode user trust and backlash against Facebook.
Legal liability – Holding onto data that should be deleted opens Facebook up to potential regulatory fines or lawsuits.

Facebook needs to carefully weigh the business value of persistent user data against reputational damage and legal exposure if they are perceived as misusing data or not giving users control over their own information.

Will Facebook Ever Allow Full Data Deletion?

Given the clear benefits to Facebook, it seems unlikely the company will ever shift its policies to allow complete and irreversible deletion of user data.

However, a few changes could help ease user concerns:

More transparency – Clearly communicate to users how their data is used and retained beyond account deletion.
Limited deletion rights – Provide users some rights to delete subsets of data like interests or location history.
AI-enabled deletion – Invest in AI solutions that can intelligently identify and delete irrelevant or risky old user data.

Time-bound data – Automatically delete user data after a fixed time period even if not requested.

Facebook is unlikely to provide a delete button that permanently removes all user data across their systems. However, incremental improvements that give users more control over their data and how long it persists can help build trust.

Key Takeaways

Some key points on why Facebook resists removing user phone numbers and other private data:

Phone numbers are core to Facebook’s account security procedures and ability to detect fake accounts.
User phone numbers and other data enables microtargeted advertising, which supports Facebook’s business model.
The scale of Facebook’s technical infrastructure makes it very complex to irreversibly delete user data.

Retaining user data provides competitive advantages around security, advertising, network effects, and having data assets.
Users have limited ability to delete their data from Facebook’s systems once shared.

While frustrating for users, Facebook has reasonable incentives to keep user data within their systems. But increased transparency, user controls, and automatic deletion could balance business interests with user privacy.

Conclusion

Facebook requires user phone numbers primarily for security processes like account verification and login approvals. Phone numbers also augment user profiles for improved microtargeted advertising. At the enormous scale of billions of users, completely deleting data like phone numbers poses major technical challenges.

Facebook’s data retention policies favor preserving user data, like contacts and activity logs, even after account deletion. While this persistent data benefits their business model, it raises understandable user privacy concerns.

Allowing more transparency around data retention periods, some limited deletion capabilities, and eventually auto-deleting old data could help ease tensions around Facebook’s reluctance to permanently erase user information. However, the incentives around security, advertising, and retaining an unmatched data asset mean Facebook is unlikely to ever provide full data deletion capabilities. Users should be thoughtful about what personal information they share into Facebook’s systems given how persistently it is retained.