Face...OFF

By Stefan Hammond | May 17, 201

"Europe's privacy watchdogs have issued a rebuke to Facebook, telling the social networking site that changes it made to the site's privacy settings late last year were 'unacceptable'."

— OUT-LAW.COM, part of international law firm Pinsent Masons

 

"Less than a week after Facebook unveiled its new features, four US senators asked the Federal Trade Commission to set privacy rules for online social networks. The four senators also sent a letter to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg detailing their concerns with Facebook's expansion of publicly available data, the company's third-party data storage policies, and privacy concerns surrounding the Instant Personalization service."

— Ian Paul, PC World

 

"Well, Zuckerburg [sic], you should consider that anyone with half a brain who joined your site a couple years back now regrets it. Maybe you're going in the wrong direction, pal."

— Anonymous blog-commenter

 

One of my favorite military terms is "exfiltration," or "exfil" for short. To exfiltrate is "to escape furtively from an area under enemy control."

 

However, my planned escape from Facebook is anything but furtive. In fact, I urge other Facebook-members to consider doing the same: remove yourself and your profile from this service, whose privacy-policies seems to change more often than a teenager's musical tastes.

 

Over the last year, various tech media (including Computerworld Hong Kong) have covered the problems caused by people misusing Facebook with evil and even criminal intent. There are sites covering everything from vacuous conversations to parents commenting directly to their children...after the kids described their drunken escapades in detail. Because if you're linked to someone and they're linked to your parents, although you may not realize it, they can view those images and words.

 

The thing about Facebook-entries is that they're not deleted—the company seems to feel they are entitled to every single image and word you slap up there. All I can say is: I'm glad there was no Facebook when I was a teenager.

 

As Hong Kong Netizens, we have freedom of choice. As an informed Netizen, you already know (or should know) that any photo or text you post on the Internet can, and possibly will, go anywhere and everywhere. With freedom comes responsibility, and you are responsible for understanding that what you put online may end up in the possession of...whoever. Once it's online, it's out of your hands.

 

But Europe's privacy watchdogs and US lawmakers don't seem to think that Facebook—personified by its CEO Mark Zuckerberg—has the same attitude towards freedom and responsibility. It's up to you, but should you decide to cancel your Facebook account, be aware that it's not a straightforward process. With recalcitrant vendors, you can always call the bank and request that their charges to your credit card not be honored, or even cancel the card if essential. With Facebook, there's no monetary transactions, so you have to get more granular on 'em—assuming you want to exfiltrate successfully.

 

This is the method that has been forwarded to me, and I pass it on to you untested (I guess I'll find out if it works in two weeks or so...):

 

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

 

Click "Submit" and follow the instructions.

 

Your account will be deactivated for two weeks, and if you DO NOT LOG IN during that period, your account is permanently deleted. I REPEAT: don't panic if your profile isn't deleted right away! You must NOT try to log in to your account for at least two weeks, as it will cancel the deletion request.

 

This method is official and should be complete, i.e. no need to delete individual photos, comments, messages or items from your profile or anywhere else on Facebook! If you have any concerns whether your stuff is actually deleted (as opposed to being kept somewhere in the deep dungeons of Facebook's HQ) your best bet is to ask them using email: info@facebook.com."

 

Of course, you can always stay on Facebook—it's your life, it's your choice. But, choose wisely.