How Do I Delete My Facebook Account?

A lot of people are concerned about Facebook’s recent privacy policy changes and revelations, and are seriously considering deleting their Facebook account completely.

I’ll walk you through some simple steps to do it, pointing out a couple of issues that make it easy for the deletion not to happen.

Internet privacy

I have to start by quoting Chris Pirillo’s two-step plan for internet privacy:

Don’t share s**t you don’t want the world to see. Repeat step 1.

While that’s clearly Chris’s attempt to shock you into paying attention to the issue, he has a point.

If you don’t want something to become public, don’t share it online. Period.

It’s a simple plan, and completely insulates you from the privacy policies of various organizations, as well as unexpected changes to those policies over time. What’s private today might not be private tomorrow.

Deactivation

Note: “Deactivation” is not the same as “deletion”.

Deactivation “turns off” your account, but does not remove your data. You can still be tagged in photos, and much of your information may still be visible, either publicly or to other Facebook members.

The idea behind deactivation is that someday you’ll come back and want all your old stuff to be restored.

Naturally, Facebook points you at deactivation rather than account deletion. Visit the Facebook Settings page, go to the General section, and under Manage account, you’ll see the option to deactivate your account.

However, if you’re absolutely positive you want a solution that says “I’m never coming back”, this is not what you want.

You want to delete your Facebook account.

Deletion prep

Start by deleting all the ties you’ve created to your Facebook account from outside of Facebook.

Specifically, if you’ve ever used the “log in using Facebook” option on other websites and services, those logins will stop working once your Facebook account no longer exists. Go to each of those sites and change how you log in before you delete your Facebook account.

Are you using a Facebook application on your mobile phone? Delete it first, from all your devices.

Using Facebook Messenger? Delete that too, from all your devices.

As we’ll see in a moment, any still-existing outside connections to Facebook can cause your account deletion to be canceled.

Deletion

Go to this link:

http://www.facebook.com/help/contact.php?show_form=delete_account

Follow the instructions there.

After the process is complete, it’s not uncommon to want to try to login to the account to make sure it’s really gone. Don’t do that. It’s also common to accidentally login to the account, either on your computer or via one of the connected apps I mentioned above. Don’t do that either.

DON’T LOG IN TO YOUR ACCOUNT FOR AT LEAST TWO WEEKS.

I’d wait longer.

I can’t stress the importance of this enough. If you log in within two weeks, you will cancel the deletion. If any of those external Facebook applications logs in again, I believe you also risk cancelling your account deletion.

After 14 days, the deletion is permanent. If you change your mind and want a Facebook account again, you’ll need to create a new one.

What am I doing?

I’m keeping my Facebook account.

I don’t share … uh … “stuff” … that I don’t want the world to see. I also avoid Facebook games and polls and quizzes that can slurp up my Facebook information to be used elsewhere for other purposes.

Even if I post something “privately” today, I’m very aware that someday, Facebook could change their terms of service to make my formerly private information public.

Would that be evil? Absolutely —  yet Facebook has a reputation for doing so.

I don’t control Facebook. I can only control what I do and what I choose to share. That means that right or wrong, the only way to protect myself and my privacy is to not share stuff I don’t want the world to see.

Assume anything you post on Facebook – even the “private” stuff – will someday be public, and act accordingly.

And for some, “acting accordingly” may mean leaving Facebook.

While I personally don’t see the need and would simply counsel you to be aware of and restrict what you post, share, and how you interact with Facebook, I can certainly understand if deleting your Facebook account is the solution you choose.

ALL SRI LANKANS BLOG

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<a href="http://sltechnozone.blogspot.com/2018/04/how-do-i-delete-my-facebook-account.html">How Do I Delete My Facebook Account?</a>

How to Find Out Everything Facebook Knows About You

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg will testify before Congress this week to answer questions from lawmakers in two separate congressional committees, to explain how his company collects and handles users' personal information.

The past few weeks have been difficult for Facebook over concerns that the data of millions of users has been breached.

Facebook stores details of almost every action you have taken and interaction you have engaged in on its platform.

What many Facebook users are unaware of, though, is that you can easily download and see all the information Facebook has collected from you in just a few minutes.

Here's how to find out what data Facebook has collected over time, including all your past posts, messages, photos, videos and more.

Here's how to Download Your Facebook Data:

First, sign into Facebook (on a desktop browser, not your mobile). Then, click the drop-down arrow on the top right, and click on "Settings."

This will take you to facebook.com/settings, where you will find your "General Account Settings."

At the very bottom of the list of General Account Settings, you will find a "Download a copy of your Facebook data" option. Click on that link.

This will take you to a page titled "Download My Information." Now click on the green button, "Start My Archive."

For security reasons, Facebook will prompt you to enter your password and send you two email alerts—first, "Facebook download requested" and another one when "Your Facebook download is ready."

The process of downloading your data should take about 15 minutes; longer or shorter depending on various factors like your internet speed and your individual Facebook account—how long you have been a member of Facebook for, how active you were, and the volume of data it needs to retrieve of you.

Facebook will then let you download a zipped folder titled "facebook-yourusername." Once you unzip it, you will find that it contains a few different folders—for photos, videos, messages, an 'html' folder of other data, and a .htm Index file to help you navigate through different sections or categories of data.

What You Can Expect To Find

In the Index.htm→Profile section, you will find some basic information about your profile including any profile names you have had in the past, all your contact info, any pages and interests you liked, groups you joined, and any Facebook pages you are a page administrator for.

The Contact Info section contains all the contacts on your mobile phone. You may also find additional info if you used an Android phone—it was recently revealed that Facebook scraped Android users' call and text message data through a default opt-in feature many users weren't explicitly aware of.

The Timeline section contains all your status updates and posts from friends on your timeline. The Photosand Videos sections contain photos and videos you posted; the former also contains code about your Facial Recognition info.

The Friends section contains a list of all your Facebook friends along with the date you become friends. It also contains a list of friends you unfriended and when, friend requests you declined, a list of friend requests you sent that are pending being accepted, a list of people who "Follow" you by clicking the follow button on your profile, and anyone you are following.

It also has a section called "Friend Peer Group"—what Facebook determines your life to be. For instance, if you are in your twenties, you may be identified as "Starting Adult Life."

The index also contains information about every Event invite you got, every Poke and Message you've sent or received (even if you are not Facebook friends with the person, or if they are no longer on Facebook), any Facebook applications you installed (even if you don't use them anymore), and any Facebook "Places" (locations) you may have created.

There's also a Security section tracking IP addresses, devices and browsers you logged in from with dates and timestamps.

The Ads section is very interesting. It contains a list of Ad Topics you are being targeted for based on interests gleaned from Facebook pages you liked.

There’s also a list of the recent ads you clicked on and any advertisers that have your contact information. You can find (and remove) additional ads and ad topics you are being targeted for by visiting: https://www.facebook.com/ads/preferences/.

The amount of data Facebook can collect is admittedly staggering. For regular Facebook users, who've been on the platform for some time, downloading and going through one’s digital footprint can definitely make one a little squeamish (and not just because of your status messages from 2008 that seemed so witty back in the day!).

Daunting as the experience might be, being aware of what information of yours is being collected is the first step to securing it.

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Learn the Correct Way to Unsend an Email With Gmail

Did you just send that message to Sam W. instead of Sam G.? It may not be too late to take it back. If you use Gmail on the web or through a native mobile app, you can unsend the message you just sent if you move quickly.

Gmail can be set to pause for up to 30 seconds before it delivers your emails after you click Send. You can recall an email and recover from false recipients, spelling mistakes, a poorly worded subject, and forgotten attachments.

You can only unsend emails if you have enabled the Undo Send feature, which is not turned on by default.

Enable Undo Send Feature in Gmail on the Web

To have Gmail delay the delivery of sent messages for a few seconds so you can retrieve them:

1. Click the Settings gear in Gmail.
2. Select Settings from the menu that appears.
3. Go to the General tab.
4. In the Undo Send section, place a check next to Enable Undo Send.
5. Select the number of seconds Gmail should pause before sending emails. The choices range from 5 to 30 seconds.
6. Click Save Changes.

How to Unsend an Email With Gmail

After you enable the Undo Send feature in Gmail, you can retrieve an email immediately after you send it. As soon as you realize you need to make a change to a sent email, you have a couple of ways to recall it:

• Click Undo in the message that appears above the Gmail screen next to Your message has been sent after you send a message. You'll see a confirming Sending has been undone notification in the same area if you click Undowithin the time frame you set up. If you don't see the confirmation that the message was undone, you may not have caught the outgoing message in time. If you aren't sure, look in the Gmail Sent Mail folder. If it appears there, the email was sent.

• Press the Z key on your keyboard promptly after you send a message and realize you want to stop its delivery. The same Sending has been undone confirmation appears at the top of the Gmail screen, but you aren't required to do anything else. Because you don't have to look for the message on your screen and move your cursor to it, of the two methods, this is the faster way to use the Unsend feature, which—considering you have only up to 30 seconds—means it is the preferred way.

Make any desired changes or additions to the message and send it again.

How to Unsend an Email With Gmail Mobile App

To unsend an email immediately after you send it using the Gmail mobile app for iOS or Android mobile devices, promptly tap Undo at the bottom of the screen. You'll see an Undoing message, and your email is displayed onscreen where you can make edits or additions to it before sending it again. If you don't send it again and tap the arrow to return to your inbox, you'll see the message Draft Saved at the bottom of the screen with an option to Discard the draft. The message displays for only seconds. 

Sources: lifewire

ALL SRI LANKANS BLOG

Hey My Readers and Visitirs If You Like Us or Our Web Site Please Share and Link back To My Site ... Take Care .,.,.

<a href="http://sltechnozone.blogspot.com/2018/04/learn-correct-way-to-unsend-email-with.html">Learn the Correct Way to Unsend an Email With Gmail</a>