You can't actually delete your Facebook account, though. They just mark it as deleted in the database, but can absolutely still use the information.
this post was submitted on 17 Feb 2026
165 points (96.1% liked)
Technology
81374 readers
5409 users here now
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Our Rules
- Follow the lemmy.world rules.
- Only tech related news or articles.
- Be excellent to each other!
- Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
- Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
- Politics threads may be removed.
- No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
- Only approved bots from the list below, this includes using AI responses and summaries. To ask if your bot can be added please contact a mod.
- Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
- Accounts 7 days and younger will have their posts automatically removed.
Approved Bots
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
Is it sure? I’ve done it 15 years ago but I remember clearly there was an option to delete everything. Could it be that it’s only for EU?
It's pretty rare to actually delete data from a database. It's almost always flagged in a way that the system is supposed to ignore.
But even if you've never had a Facebook account, they create a shadow profile by tracking you through the share on Facebook buttons on websites.
You all still have Facebook accounts???
It's really hard to get people to suffer mild inconvenience when they don't emotionally connect with the benefits.
Most of facebook's evils are remote and impersonal. Seeing your cousin's baby photos is real and at hand.
Instagram, WhatsApp, Oculus Rift?
Why, would a closed account be a problem for them? Imagine one day receiving a short video from your deceised mom saying hi and inviting you back to fb for a chat.
But only if you reactivate your account
If Cambridge Analytica wasn't enough of a reason to leave Facebook, then you will probably continue using Facebook today even after reading this.
Facebook should have been shutdown then. Actually, it should have been shutdown even before then since the Edward Snowden leaks.
The actions of users (or lack of user actions) from back then have brought us to the issues of today. The information has been out there for over a decade.
Why shut it down when you can just let it buy up all its competitors?
/s
The best time to delete your accounts was a decade ago. The second best time is today.
Never had a Facebook account, never will, and so i will never know the joy of deleting it.
Been through it twice. You're not really missing any joy, just the annoyance of really hoping you don't accidentally "sign in using Facebook" on a random website and have to start the process over.
No it won’t. It will be the veneer. Like preserving the makeup and hair product but not the person it’s painted on.
A lot of Facebook users are 90% veneer though.
I already assume everything I wrote on the Internet is eternal. Of course, data is free and people will use it for stupid stuff like this. This doesn't surprise me.
Way ahead of ya, brother.
This is exactly why I've been recording personal logs and saving archives of all of my digital interactions for over a decade already. Going to make one of these for myself at some point using local models.
They laughed, called me mad. Well who's mad now?
I doubt it will come close to that, it would probably be a very bad copy. I doubt even the most facebook addicted person would put out enough information for the AI to make a good copy of them as a person. Their voice and face, yes, but I imagine talking to them would be just as infuriating as talking to an AI model of today.
I saw a documentary about this. I think they called it Caprica.