Deleting Facebook Account Safely

Facebook is a website that allows users, who sign-up for free profiles, to connect with friends, work colleagues, or people they don't know, online. It allows users to share pictures, music, videos, etc with other people.

Why not having a Facebook Account is the best option for you?

Because the data you give to Facebook can be used against you.

Creepy: Have you ever wondered how Facebook shows you advertisements of things that you wish to buy? - well they track your activity like your reviews, posts, location, etc., and target you with these ads, these actions are kind of creepy.

This data is also used to target voters with political ads in the 2016 elections.

Facebook owns you: Facebook owns all the property of the users that its users generate on its platform. This means all your photos, videos, posts, contacts, etc are legally the property of Facebook.

Data vulnerability: On April 3, 2021, the personal data of over 533 million Facebook users from 106 countries were posted in a low-level hacking system. It included the phone numbers, full names, locations, email addresses, and biographical information.

Even Zuckerberg himself doesn't use his product like WhatsApp and has been found using apps like Signal.

Your employability might be in danger: Employers can search you on social media like Facebook using your name and photo provided in the resume and they can decide whether to hire you or not based on your posts, opinions (political especially). Your opinions or posts can cause employers to reject your application.

People can get bullied, body-shamed, or can get depression. It can also lead to bad communication skills among young people. Also, it causes people to post fake happiness or achievements to look good in the eyes of society, family, and friends. It's better to live life the way you want to live (if it doesn't hurt anybody) without being shamed or judged by people and you need no validation from society.

It is better to delete your Facebook account and spend time working on yourself rather than faking happiness.

This is done to ensure that your ID or Account is permanently deleted from the server. Facebook takes atleast 30 days to process your request of deleting account.

First, you have to unfollow and unfriend everyone from Facebook.

For that, click on the "Friends" section of your profile. Unfriend and unfollow everyone and every page you once did follow.

Click on the "Photos" section of the profile.

Downloading Photos -

You can download your photos individually or you can download them as a whole album.

1.Single Photos:

To download a single photo, click on the photo you want to download and press on the three dots given on the side of the image and then press download.

2.Album Photos:

This is the most efficient than downloading a single photo as it downloads all the photos stored in the particular album.

To download an album, click on the "Album" section. Press on the three dots and then press the "Download Album" option. A request will be passed and within a few minutes, a notification will pop up on your screen, click on the notification and enter your password to download the compressed file containing all the photos from the album.

Deleting Photos -

Now, you have to delete the photos to remove them permanently from the account and to ensure proper deletion of the account.

Single Photos:

Like we did previously, select the photo then press three dots and select the "Delete Photo" option.

Album Photos:

In Album, if the album is made by Facebook then it won't have the "Delete Album" option and you have to delete each photo in this album individually. Albums like Timeline Photos, Profile Pictures, Mobile Uploads, and Cover Photos are created by Facebook and thus don't have any deletion option.

But if the album is created by you then it will enable the "Delete Album" option and you can delete a whole album at once.

This is as same as we did for photos. Download the videos and then delete the videos from the account.

Now, it's time to remove info from your "About" section. Delete everything from "Overview", "Work and Education" etc., and then remove your mobile number from the account.

As you are going to delete your Facebook account permanently it will also delete your messenger chats permanently. If you have some memories and want to keep the chats you can download the chats.

Follow these steps:

1. Click on the drop-down button.
2. Select "Settings & Privacy".
3. Then select "Settings".
4. Now select "Your Facebook Information".
5. Select "Access your information".
6. Scroll down and select "Download your information".
7. Now either you can download all the data or just deselect everything and select "Messages".
8. Now scroll up and select the "date range", "quality", and "format".
9. Request for a copy.
10. Wait for 10 minutes (or more as it depends on the amount of data you have) and you will see a notification.
11. Click the notification and download the chats to your PC.

The final step, deleting the Facebook account permanently.

Follow these steps:

1. Click on the drop-down button.
2. Select "Settings & Privacy".
3. Then select "Settings".
4. Now select "Your Facebook Information".
5. Select the "Deactivation and Deletion" option.
6. Select the "Delete Account" and press "Continue Account Deletion".
7. Click "Delete Account".
8. Confirm your password.

Done! your Facebook account is deleted. You can recover it if you changed your mind by logging in to the account with your password within 30 days of requesting account deletion. After 30 days the Facebook account will be deleted forever.