Unplugged

Ask the Readers: Will You Delete Your Facebook Account?

With all the controversy surrounding Facebook, today we want to hear from you. Tell us what you really think.

Facebook has been dominating news cycles this week due to the controversy surrounding how it allows apps and companies to harvest your data and your friend’s data. For longtime social media users, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that Facebook, social apps, and other online entities, including Amazon and Google, harvest user data so they can develop a profile to improve its targeted advertising AI. It’s nothing new and Facebook has never been known as the guardians of user privacy.

However, the recent Cambridge Analytica and stories surrounding Russian interference in the U.S. elections has magnified the issues surrounding privacy. All the negative attention on how Facebook manages user day has caused many repercussions. The company’s stock value has taken a hit, the #DeleteFacebook movement is trending on Twitter, Facebook investors are suing over the scandal. Mark Zuckerberg himself has been out front and center for damage control. He first broke his silence with a post on his personal Facebook page and making the media rounds. He has done several interviews with tech sites and an interview on CNN.

Since its inception, we have written several stories about the creepiness of Facebook, making it work better for you, and how to improve security and protect your privacy. No matter what you decide to do with Facebook, take a moment to review some of the following articles to ensure you’re getting the most from the social service. If none of the links below peak your interest, make sure to browse through our complete archive of helpful Facebook articles.

So, when do users decide that, “enough is enough” and we don’t need your service anyway. If you step back and look at it, Facebook is not much more than a time-wasting exercise that typically just gets you in a bad mood anyway. What vital function does it serve that you can’t live without? Whether you delete your Facebook account, lock down your privacy, or continue to use it as normal, leave a comment and let us know your thoughts.

Now go ahead and sound off about Facebook in the comment section below. How do you really feel about the service? Rants are welcomed – but please keep things clean and civil.

31 Comments

31 Comments

  1. Brian Burgess

    March 22, 2018 at 12:29 pm

    I still have my account and use it to keep in touch with a few people, but overall I check it maybe once a day? I have done a lot of “cleaning” over the years…unfollowing people I don’t know… and locking it down, especially the apps that have access to it. When signing up for a service, it seems simple to just “Log in with Facebook” but I never use that, and do it the old fashion way with email and a password.

    It doesn’t offer much and if I wasn’t a tech journalist and covering it, I wouldn’t have an account at all.

  2. infmom

    March 22, 2018 at 12:37 pm

    I’ve never allowed any other app or site to connect with my Facebook page and I check the security on a regular basis. I use FB to stay in touch with family and friends and I don’t plan to change that.

    • Jack Busch

      March 22, 2018 at 1:53 pm

      Keep in mind that one of the things that’s so controversial about the Cambridge Analytica scandal is that people had their data collected because their FRIENDS shared it with a third party. Many of these companies triangulate data based on your connections, whether you consent or not.

  3. Jack Busch

    March 22, 2018 at 1:55 pm

    I still have my account. I’m a bit resigned to the post-privacy era. Call me cynical. I wasn’t shocked by the recent news cycle because I already assumed this was happening. Damage is done by now.

    • Jimmy

      March 23, 2018 at 1:00 pm

      Same here. It is like selling a car after you get in a wreck even though you can still use it like you always have.

  4. Lori Kaufman

    March 22, 2018 at 2:40 pm

    I plan to keep my account because I use it to keep up with friends and family. I rarely post, though. I don’t play games on it or use other Facebook apps. I also never use the “Log in with Facebook” option on sites and in games. I always log in with just an email and a password. I try to keep Facebook as separate as I can from the rest of my online actions.

  5. DebbyS

    March 23, 2018 at 6:27 am

    I signed up for an account several years ago because some sites I visited demanded FB info if one wished to leave a comment. Those sites no longer allow comments, which is irritating. However, I’m keeping the account because it is one way to keep in touch with family and friends — though I don’t check it often. It had to be suggested to me that I write up an account of an accident I had late last year, to inform people who I didn’t realize would care. That was nice. I’ve also sent to my FB page some links to good YT videos and I’ve visit some FB sites that interest me; being a member I think makes visits easier. I don’t list personal info (like age, high school, address, all that), the report of my accident being the closest I’ve gotten to that and I was careful what I wrote there. I suspect users think they have to answer all of FB’s questions about themselves and that’s where the trouble begins. Sure, the service is free, but one doesn’t have to bare ones soul on it…

  6. Willy Fontana

    March 23, 2018 at 6:32 am

    I won’t delete my account for now. Everything I publish has zero importance, a few pictures, my rantings, some interesting news, and so on. I know the information is public and as such they can do whatever they like.

    This so-called filtration doesn’t concern me and I’m not worried at all. Facebook should be seen as a social media (entertainment) and no as a “serious” way of expression. That’s my humble opinion.

  7. Jim

    March 23, 2018 at 6:34 am

    I found it very annoying that FB would go through the pictures on my phone, I have since denied denied all permissions for FB. If I want to post a picture from my phone I enable it, make the post and then disable it again. My profile either is blank or only shows generic information. I frequently unfollow people that are just really friends of friends. I am seriously thinking of just deleting my account since hearing how my data has been mined especially since it is continually getting harder and takes up more time to protect yourself on the site.

  8. Marsha

    March 23, 2018 at 6:35 am

    Pretty sure I will keep it, but the comment about it putting me in a bad mood most of the time is true for me. I like to keep up with family and friends, but hate all the unsolicited BS. Negative is the biggest thing I feel while on it.

  9. Barry Brune

    March 23, 2018 at 6:56 am

    The truly unforgivable part of this whole episode is that Zuckerberg signed a consent decree with the FTC to help insure this type of privacy invasion would never happen. And then the arrogant CEO immediately chose to ignore it in his chase for maximum profits. I hope the FTC hits Facebook really hard now and that some other party with a different business model develops to skim all their concerned users to another service. We had best begin looking at Europe as a leader in trying to contain the tech overreach. Barry

  10. Jerry Jackson

    March 23, 2018 at 7:09 am

    If it helped get rid of Hillary it is well worth it.

  11. Randal Forest Moon

    March 23, 2018 at 7:42 am

    Completely deleted my account. I have seen how it has compromised some of my fellow employees work performance – hours spent during the day on FB. Plus I was finding it sucking up way to much of my time at home. I do believe it can become an addiction. Could care less about the security issues ‘for myself’, nothing linked to it and my life is quite unremarkable. Should have done it a long time ago. Just my 2 cents worth.

    • Eileen Ross

      March 25, 2018 at 6:02 am

      I deleted my account months ago, when I realized how evil this company really is.
      And, studies have proven how damaging it is to children. My advice is to get out now, you will feel better about yourself.

  12. Robert Sellars

    March 23, 2018 at 9:20 am

    I’m careful what I do with FB, just keep in touch with a few friends I might not otherwise see and a couple of special interest groups. I have always assumed that any site I subscribe to is using my data for some sort of analysis (including groovypost!) and that’s OK, I don’t mind but it does make me careful about saying things I might regret later. So I won’t be deleting my FB account but my caution about what I say has just increased a bit and I will be checking my FB settings.

  13. Victor

    March 23, 2018 at 9:45 am

    I have always been leery of Facebook, and seldom use my account. Sometimes it was convenient to use my credentials to access other accounts on the net, but for several years that has been my only use. Looks like my concerns were justified.

  14. Mary Ellen Reese

    March 23, 2018 at 9:55 am

    I unfriended everyone; but these horses left the barn long ago. Everything about us is on many databases already. People need to get more skeptical and smarter. They need to have some common sense to filter things they read and are told. Unfortunately, the people who voted for Trump don’t have that capability. The 47% of people who didn’t vote, but could have, need to step up in November and thereafter. Then the rest of us have to hope they are smarter than the 25% who voted for Trump. It doesn’t look good! The government has been run by and for big corporations ever since Reagan was elected. They will pay for whatever is necessary to keep that stranglehold.

  15. Jay

    March 23, 2018 at 10:35 am

    Yes I have deleted my account.

  16. Widdershins

    March 23, 2018 at 1:06 pm

    Way back when, when signing up for facebook became the thing to do, I never got around to doing it. So all this is a moot point for me, but hopefully this whole mess is a wake-up call for people who have no filters when engaging with social media.

  17. Jay

    March 23, 2018 at 4:03 pm

    I have already deleted account!

  18. Joe Fardella

    March 23, 2018 at 6:07 pm

    Still debating !!!

  19. Dominic

    March 24, 2018 at 2:43 am

    I plan on keeping my account but I don’t like the news feed. Too much clutter for me. I will only use it for messenger from now on.

  20. Jon Lisle-Summers

    March 24, 2018 at 7:26 pm

    I still use Facebook because it’s my only useful way of contacting friends on other continents.

    I’ve known about Robert Mercer and Cambridge Analytica for about nine months due to the Guardian investigation. I wasn’t that surprised:only the scale and sophistication was unexpected. What did surprise me is that it’s taken so long to get the story out to a wide audience, given that a cute kitten can go viral in 24 hours…. Maybe that’s where the Guardian went wrong: they should have run a cute picture….

    As far as I’m concerned, the battle for privacy should have been fought about 15 years ago. Now, it’s way too late, the damage is done. I assume that whatever some agent or other wants to know about me is available from so many sources that I have no chance of staging a digital disappearance.

    From here on, the main security issue will be safeguarding future data. No doubt, the usual suspects will use the opportunity to do the opposite. There’s been a lot of trailing of the idea of a two-speed internet. The first move now will be a separate high-security net which, in due course, will ‘happen’ to be much faster than the plebeian version.

    The old world took centuries to plug most of the holes in paper systems and still never became completely watertight. The new world faces a far vaster problem which may only ever be as impregnable as a sieve in my lifetime down even to the third generation.

  21. Ziggy

    March 25, 2018 at 5:26 am

    I use a carrier pigeon to connect with my friends. Nah, just joking! I have an account – totally fictitious – and only use it on sites that require a Facebook to login – example, my hometown on Facebook. Other than that, I rarely use it!

  22. Zoltan

    March 25, 2018 at 11:22 am

    Had an account years ago, deleted years ago. See no value in it.

    • SB

      March 25, 2018 at 12:08 pm

      Amen!

  23. SB

    March 25, 2018 at 12:08 pm

    Dumped it in 2010!

  24. Ben

    March 25, 2018 at 3:11 pm

    Facebook and other social media accounts only have the information you give them. Use nicknames, wrong notable dates, don’t give your phone numbers (if you have to then give the local police number LOL). If you don’t put your information on then they can’t use it.

  25. kbutler

    March 26, 2018 at 12:44 pm

    I stopped using facebook years ago but they still ‘ding’ me about restarting. i try to NEVER visit facebook pages because every visit is tagged. i use a vpn wherever possible and popup blockers as well. now, many sites will not work without some or all of the things that track and spy use are turned on. i stop using those vendor sites and vendors as well.

    if facebook or any other data collector/analyzer wants to use my habits as a basis of data sale to others they should contact me, pay me, and give me control over what i share… yeah, right!!

    using facebook is like publishing your telephone number and tell the advert’s to call you. it also says to scammers “here i be so stick me.” We have to pay for internet access, slow and sporadic as it may be, so we should be entitled to privacy in its use.

  26. kbutler

    March 26, 2018 at 1:10 pm

    This is an adder to my original post.

    Go to: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/03/23/facebook_and_the_future/

    And review it. Then do a search on Register for FACEBOOK.

    This site has kept me informed for many years and the many facets of IT and much, much else.

  27. Dan C.

    April 17, 2018 at 11:23 am

    This is not the same facebook i signed onto 8 or however many years ago. it was a place to get back in touch with old friends and new friends and relatives. it was fun for a while. then politics got inserted into the system. all of a sudden, people that i had considered friends were getting out of control nasty and eventually full of hate. where there used to be discussions about topics, now had turned into full out name calling sh*tfests. and, just like a certain president now, facts were lose and solidly hung onto. It got to where even non political topics drew spiteful comments. facebook was amazingly partisan and you could not find a corner to hide in without getting stoned. I finally logged on only every other day or so. the deal breaker for me was when the political party that was so dead set against the last president, saying all their hate and discontent and not backing down, all of a sudden demanded the new prez got respectful treatment. short memories how their own hate never stopped. I deleted my account after the ceo, during his testimony said he would not say where he was staying or who he sent messages to. he wanted a little privacy. Well. I want a little sanity back. i dont need to go online to argue with misinformed people. i dont want to argue with people online at all. also, i have already had my credit card accounts skimmed… i dont see any use letting the rest of my life be open for public consumption.

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