How Facebook handles account deletions
pageflows.com
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Dr. Robert B. Cialdini, closed off Influence, The Psychology of Persuasion with the following paragraph about organizations that manipulate us and I completely believe Facebook is one of these organizations:
"I don’t consider myself pugnacious by nature, but I actively advocate such belligerent actions because in a way I am at war with the exploiters—we all are. It is important to recognize, however, that their motive for profit is not the cause for hostilities; that motive, after all, is something we each share to an extent. The real treachery, and the thing we cannot tolerate, is any attempt to make their profit in a way that threatens the reliability of our shortcuts. The blitz of modern daily life demands that we have faithful shortcuts, sound rules of thumb to handle it all. These are not luxuries any longer; they are out-and-out necessities that figure to become increasingly vital as the pulse of daily life quickens. That is why we should want to retaliate whenever we see someone betraying one of our rules of thumb for profit. We want that rule to be as effective as possible. But to the degree that its fitness for duty is regularly undercut by the tricks of a profiteer, we naturally will use it less and will be less able to cope efficiently with the decisional burdens of our day. We cannot allow that without a fight. The stakes have gotten too high."
It’s very astute.
The company seems to have a strong culture of gaslighting and manipulating users. When I saw that screen, there were people there that definitely wouldn't miss me and who would probably be appalled that their identities were being used in that way.
When other people quit Facebook, it's likely that your photo is being presented to other users (who you may not really know) telling them that you will miss them. It's terrible.
Every time Facebook, the company, communicated with me, I felt like I was dealing with a manipulative gaslighter. I'm glad that it is no longer a part of my life.
The amount of anthropomorphism and insertion of emotional levers into tech tools/products is something I've always had a very visceral reaction against, but at least for consumer products (and unfortunately, increasingly in the SaaS space as well) it seems to be gaining traction. I have no doubt that it _works_ from a psychological perspective, but I wonder if I'm alone in feeling offput as a user. Clearly alone enough that it doesn't move the needle in terms of efficacy, unfortunately. (unfortunately in the context of whatever weird emotional pathology I've apparently developed have with my tooling :) )
And then I couldn't remember the last time I interacted with any of them on facebook and went ahead with my deletion.
Pure emotional manipulation.
This is the third time you’ve used the term in this subthread. It appeared in your original comment and now twice more. I am reminded of when a media outlet deliberately associates a politician with a given phrase. It looks like an attempt at marketing.
It doesn't necessarily result in one questioning their own sanity, but it's definitely an attempt to manipulate the realities of the users by showing them different information that result in certain behaviors. One person is shown one thing that makes them behave a certain way. The other person is shown the results of the behaviors, assuming a different cause of the behaviors, which is not exactly the reality.
None of those people I was shown will miss me. They have no idea that their likenesses are being used to try to manipulate me. Very few people know that it is happening at all, because each person sees a different thing.
I think of it as "perception fencing", where barriers and openings are created to manipulate the information you consume and the behaviors that result, but I'm not sure that people would know exactly what I'm referring to if I use that term. If you have a better term, feel free to suggest it.
"Gaslighting is a form of manipulation that seeks to sow seeds of doubt in a targeted individual or in members of a targeted group, hoping to make them question their own memory, perception, and sanity."
"Fear of missing out is a pervasive apprehension that others might be having rewarding experiences from which one is absent"
-wiki
I wrote other thoughts here:
They do not need to keep a record that I previously existed in their system. There is literally nothing other than marketing/bizdev that derives value from this.
Facebook ignored requests I made (submitted without having an account) that the profile was fake. I also had friends report the account for me but it still exists today - this is the fake account https://m.facebook.com/harry.fuecks - thats not my picture.
So beware - it may be more pragmatic just to deactivate your account than delete. That means Facebook gets to keep your data but at least you don't risk identify theft.
Ultimately think it's going to take regulation to solve this problem in general - it's not in Facebooks interest to make account deletion painless.
(It was a test account at a time I didn't even have a personal account yet. I uploaded very mild nudity¹ as a profile pic and had a friend flag me on purpose)
¹ http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/walker/collections/painti... (slightly NSFW)
In light of recent activities I’d like them to delete all data they have on me but since I’m not an EU citizen unfortunately I don’t have the GDPR to force them to do so.
After a few months passed, I tried to sign in again and it just didn't recognize my email address.
I'd assume they "remove" disabled accounts after a few months based on my experience.
I deactivated my Facebook before, and I had to go through each individual app and either migrate the account to a native login or completely revoke access from the app, if I didn't want them to undo the deactivation when I logged in later, Spotify included.
I feel like they should put some sort of separation between the "Login with Facebook" feature and the Facebook app itself, so that logging in personally reactivates the account but logging in via an app simply verifies the credentials.
If you signed up for Spotify using Facebook, this doesn't work.
That's why I never used spotify.
Several years ago I read an article about how savvy teenagers and college students were calling account deactivation "Super Logout", since it was well known that deactivation was non-binding and immediately reversible at any time. If you were going to be away from your phone or computer for anything more than a few hours you would Super Logout and not have to worry about potentially embarrassing wall posts, tagged photos, tagged comments, unwelcome messages, etc.. It was all about having full control of who interacts with your account and when. I thought it was quite brilliant and I totally get why you would want to do that in the fast-paced social world of a teenager. Ever since I read that I've always laughed at people saying "I'm going to delete my account", thinking they were really deleting it. (I bet no more than a fraction, if any, ever dug up the full deletion option.) People think they are "deleting" their account while kids are literally using "deletion" as an advanced feature of the platform.
I'm very doubtful they voluntarily delete your data.
Facebook needs to clarify what actually happens to data.
I believe they always retain all data forever, as a trade secret. They don't need no stinking laws to do that.
This is a component of not requiring users to pay for premium service. When you "create an account" you're simply "activating/linking/merging" one of your shadow profiles to your IRL identity (or not-so-IRL personas), which (possibly) has always existed (long before you showed up), claiming it as yours, and publicly exposing whatever Facebook is willing to show you that they know about you/that persona/whoever.
GDPR?
If they stick to those habits with European users post May 25, GDPR will mess them up pretty bad. It would require just one whistle blower to expose their wrongdoings.
I just reactivated my deactivated account to delete it.
Edit: I guess the text above makes this link confusing. Go FB.
I deleted (not deactivated) a Facebook account that I had from high school to sophomore year of college.
A year or two later I made a new one and didn't fill out anything except my name and didn't add any friends (yet). Almost immediately facebook started suggesting friends, groups, etc that existed on my deleted account.
tl;dr nothing is every really "deleted," just hidden
The people/person who wrote the article seem desperate for you to not follow the directions. They want you to go to Facebook and starting sharing and liking content right away. They just want your money.
Suppose John owns a room. John's room is occupied at full capacity, 24/7. People mingle in the room, sometimes they trade with each other. Assume John is never present in the room at any time. John decides to install a camera and microphone in the room. John analyzes the data in order help increase the quantity of trades in the room, through which John makes a considerable commission. Later, someone asks him to delete the data he has on them. John says he will only delete the data after 90 days, and if the person takes a step in the room within 14 days, they will not have their data deleted.
Is John's behavior ethical?
For starters, your scenario involves a surveillance camera, but in the next sentence, you ask us to imagine that the friends haven't given any permission. Permission for what exactly?
Good question. I rent out a house with 100% capacity, and I haven't set foot in the house in the past year at all. It's managed remotely by me. There are living areas where people can hang out. This is also what John does.
> you ask us to imagine that the friends haven't given any permission. Permission for what exactly?
I have edited that part out and made things more concise, thanks for catching that. John records his living room and uses the data in order to sell products to the people who happen to be there. Later, people found out and have politely asked him to delete any video and audio involving them.
Side note: I feel John's implementation isn't important here, so I've intentionally left it out. Perhaps he earns a profit by having buyers and sellers meet, serendipitously, in his living room. For example, he may learn that Alice is a laptop seller and Bob is a laptop buyer. Assume John can influence the traffic in his living room for the sake of the gedanken.
I was on there just a few days ago to find out what my elderly aunts were up to. Crickets. They hadn't posted anything for three years.
I just deleted my FB account, and I am a little less of a product (today).