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« Infinitely small times infinitely large equals…?
Music »

“…like a tattoo you regret”

I just left Facebook! The evil empire thought they forever would own my soul, but they didn’t count with Jonathan.

Note, by “leaving” facebook, I don’t mean the standard “deactivation” that only locks your account until you log back in again. That still keeps all your data, personal info, posts, photos online for everybody to see. Yes, it is possible to delete you account, but that must be requested via e-mail, and only after you delete everything connected to your user. That means all applications, every single post you made on people’s user pages, basically a LOT of data that needs to be deleted…one…by…one. Barely impossible.

But there is a trick! Facebook stores your e-mail address as an unique identifier for your account. This is where we start.

Quick and simple guide for permanently deleting your Facebook account

UPDATE: September 2009: Many readers have reported that this hack doesn’t work anymore. I cannot verify if this works or not (for obvious reasons :) ), read the comments below for more information.

As found at Wikihow

Make sure that you know what you are doing. I take no responsibility of these actions. This is permanent!

  1. If you are the only admin of any group, hand it over to someone you trust or the group will be gone as well (which will make any group members confused)
  2. Say a last goodbye.
  3. Remove all your e-mail addresses except the one you use as your contact e-mail.
  4. Disable your account. This can be found where you edit your profile. If you feel like it, check “Other” as the reason to why you leave, and type in a crafty note to the Facebook owners. Something like “I leave you for ever. You lose!” or any message of your liking
  5. Sign up a new account. Use a DIFFERENT e-mail than the one on your old accont. I recommend SlopsBox, a free one-time mail service for these kinds of registrations. SlopsBox will make sure this account won’t be traced back to you.
  6. When you sign up, you can provide any information you want as long as you use your SlopsBox e-mail account. Fake your name and info, or people will think this account is you.
  7. When you have signed up, edit your profile.
  8. Take a last deep breath. It happens now. Add the e-mail address of your original account to be your contact info.
  9. When this has been verified, your old account is overwritten by your new one. Like magic.
  10. Deactivate this new account and select “Opt-out”
  11. Done!

Now you are free to do whatever you want. Take a picture. Feel the bubbling sensation of you actually owning the photo yourself. Nobody else!
Take a walk. Try to remember the last time you were walking and not feeling watched. This is your new life without Facebook.

So to all of you who had me on his/her contact list and wonder where I have gone: I am no longer on Facebook. You will no longer find me in your contact list. You will not find me in your fancy group you created. You will not find my cute messages that I wrote on your wall.
You will find me somewhere else, in a better place. Perhaps you should join me? It is actually simple and painless.

Questions? Comments? Outrageous anger? Write below!

This entry was written by Jonathan Fors, posted on Thursday, January 17, 2008 at 22:31, filed under Life and tagged facebook, Internet, privacy. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post. Post a comment or leave a trackback: Trackback URL.
« Infinitely small times infinitely large equals…?
Music »

22 Comments

  1. Martin Krisell
    Posted Tuesday, February 5, 2008 at 22:40 | Permalink

    Är detta en slump eller har ni samma källa?
    http://www.e24.se/branscher/ittelekom/artikel_96345.e24

  2. Martin Krisell
    Posted Tuesday, February 5, 2008 at 22:42 | Permalink

    Såg nu att artikeln var gammal, då var det inte så konstigt längre :/

  3. Kärin
    Posted Monday, February 11, 2008 at 19:49 | Permalink

    du, stämmer det att du har ett gäng videofilmer som är tänkta att komma att tillhöra mig hemma hos dig i Linköping? =)
    är på väg söderöver på fredag, passerar Lkg nånstans runt lunchtid, skulle jag tro. går det att ordna på nåt sätt att plocka upp dem?

  4. Erik Lindström
    Posted Saturday, February 16, 2008 at 18:50 | Permalink

    Jag har hittat dig! :-) Gissningsvis är det vid detta stadium du blir förvirrad och undrar vem jag är.

  5. Jonathan Fors
    Posted Sunday, February 17, 2008 at 02:07 | Permalink

    Erik.

    Kvalificerad gissning: Västerås Linuxförening. Teknikprogrammet på Wenströmska. Kompis med Johan.

    Rätt?

  6. Erik Lindström
    Posted Sunday, February 17, 2008 at 10:04 | Permalink

    Yes, även numera andraårsstudent på D-programmet och boende i Ryd.

  7. Jonathan Fors
    Posted Sunday, February 17, 2008 at 12:17 | Permalink

    Se där! Många i Västerås verkar hamna i Linköping. Är du med i Lysator eller någonting?

  8. Erik Lindström
    Posted Sunday, February 17, 2008 at 13:40 | Permalink

    Jo, medlem är jag, men jag är långt ifrån aktiv och besöker tyvärr nästan aldrig tilde. Däremot är jag aktiv inom min sektion och undervisare I:are i programmering vid IDA.

  9. Masha
    Posted Monday, July 14, 2008 at 21:12 | Permalink

    Thank you so much! You are genius!!!!

  10. Noemi
    Posted Sunday, November 16, 2008 at 16:18 | Permalink

    Thanks Jonathan! ;)

  11. Max
    Posted Sunday, February 15, 2009 at 23:45 | Permalink

    Thank you some much, I did your trick and feel free now, god everyone knew I broke up with my gf even my boss, Now I can keep my private life private!

  12. Luisa
    Posted Tuesday, April 21, 2009 at 17:11 | Permalink

    Thank you very very very much!!!

  13. liz
    Posted Friday, August 7, 2009 at 19:28 | Permalink

    Facebook says it is not a valid email

  14. liz
    Posted Friday, August 7, 2009 at 20:22 | Permalink

    I couldn’t use slopbox but i made another email account for signing up. I then put my email from my original account in the contact info section and it just said there is an existing account associated with this email.

  15. Jonathan Fors
    Posted Sunday, August 9, 2009 at 17:52 | Permalink

    @Liz:

    Try registering a completely random e-mail address. It seems like the address you chose was used by another account sometime before.

    Jonathan

  16. me
    Posted Saturday, August 22, 2009 at 01:32 | Permalink

    Thank you and good riddance to Facebook.

  17. tim
    Posted Tuesday, August 25, 2009 at 11:08 | Permalink

    Same problem as Liz. It thinks my original email address is already in use, and rejects the request.

  18. tim
    Posted Tuesday, August 25, 2009 at 11:11 | Permalink

    Looks like they may have blocked this.

  19. Jonathan Fors
    Posted Tuesday, August 25, 2009 at 11:41 | Permalink

    @Tim, @Liz

    It seems like facebook finally has blocked this hack. I haven’t tried this hack since early 2008 (for reasons that should be obvious), so I can’t help you anymore.

    Jonathan

  20. ecsor
    Posted Saturday, September 5, 2009 at 03:01 | Permalink

    what about if I follow steps 1 through 7 and, on step 8, instead of adding my original e-mail address, I add the e-mail address X of another person. Can the profile associated to that X email address be deleted?

  21. ecsor
    Posted Saturday, September 5, 2009 at 03:02 | Permalink

    forget about it, just read the latest comments

  22. pete
    Posted Tuesday, September 29, 2009 at 09:40 | Permalink

    just wrote this in a similar blog:

    if you google facebook leave you get to this site: http://www.wikihow.com/Permanently-Delete-a-Facebook-Account

    read it through and you’ll find this method and one other, which ist apparantly still working (i just left)

    at the bottom under “tips” there’s a link directly to the “delete my account for ever” thing it worked. But just to make sure, that they do not keep the informations, delete everything beforehand by yourself.

One Trackback

  1. By Fujifilm smiles its way back in your inbox « Katheline Jean-Pierre, Social Media Strategy on Wednesday, September 30, 2009 at 23:01

    [...] have to find tips to quit facebook and even guide on How to quit facebook and joining Facebook is Like a tattoo you regret! First, determine why you wish to quit Facebook and delete your Facebook profile. Closing and [...]

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