Can You Completely Delete A Facebook Account

Factual Questions
1

I am doing job search and I figured I might use Facebook to look up some old contacts. Some jobs I had have gone out of business, so I’d like to see if I could find some old co-workers if I ever need a reference.

I have a very unique name so I’d be easy to find. My question is once I sign up if I make the contacts can I get rid of the Facebook account permentently.

I am seeing conflicting info when I Google this. It’s usually something like: “Facebook says you can delete it but it’s never gone.” or “I deleted my Facebook account and to my surprise I found six months later it was still around.” And things like that.

I’d like to know if those are valid claims or Internet whining or people not deleting it right.

I mean I have use for Facebook, so I am not going to want to keep it

2

If the pages are cached in Google then it lives on after the original page is gone.

You can start reading hereabout getting the cached page removed. Hopefully someone experienced with the scenario can expand on the process.

3

Google isn’t the only place caching Web pages. I found caches of various pages from my personal website going back to 1997 in the Internet Wayback Machine. Information from 100 million Facebook users was uploaded as a searchable archive on Pirate Bay. Sites like spokeo.com compile data on people from various sources like Facebook and make it available for people like your potential future bosses to use.

Once the contents of your Facebook page make it out into places like that, it really doesn’t matter whether you delete the Facebook account or not. You are best off simply not posting anything on Facebook (or anywhere similar) that you wouldn’t want your spouse, children, mother, and boss to read.

4

I’m not so much concerned about the Google Cache, I just want to make sure when I leave Facebook I’m gone from there.

I don’t plan to use my Facebook for anything but to sort of reconnect to business people I used to know.

That’s where my real question is, when you delete an Facebook account is it really gone. Or is it just, for lack of a better word, put into an inactive state.

Thanks

5

It used to be that you could only deactivate the account. Facebook recently added an option to let you delete it entirely.

Whether they keep a secret copy of your stuff after that process is anyone’s guess, but in theory at least all your stuff should be gone.

6

And don’t forget that Google will eventually replace its cache, so it’s not like it’s there forever.

7

A friend of mine wanted to use fb to find people but not be found. She used a ridiculous fake name. When she’d gotten as much out of it she deleted the account. This was well over six months ago. She did say they don’t make it at all easy to delete them.

I just did a google search and got one result, which was a facebook link that showed a tremendously long character string that included the name, but the link went nowhere.

8

If you do the fake name thing, learn from this thread and use a fake email as well.

9

Fake? Her “ridiculous fake name” was Janie Jo Jablonski.

That just so happens to be the name I was born with, and I had hundreds of people demanding to be friended. And telling me about their most uncomfortable bad habits, and why “The Goonies” is overrated.

It is not.

10

It is possible to completely delete a facebook account, but they don’t want you to.
I tried to delete mine over a year ago, having not used it for at least 6 months, and was told that it would be deactivated for some (possibly three) months in case I wanted to change my mind, and if I logged in during those months then my account would be reinstated. Otherwise, it will be gone at the end of said period. Fine, thinks I, leave it alone and all will be well.
A week or so before the deletion date, receive an e-mail notification from facebook that I have reactivated my account. I certainly didn’t, nobody knows my passwords, and my computer isn’t allowed to log in for me, but there it is. I went back to facebook, and was notified that I have 42 million notifications, and half the population of the civilized world wants to connect with me (may not be 100% of fact) so I find the delete profile option again, and go through the rigmarole of confirming half a dozen times that I am actually me and that yes, I do want rid of the poxy account, then go back to waiting. This process was repeated no less than three (3!) times before, it seems, they got sick of trying to reconvert me and decided to just let me go. So it is possible, but by no means quick or simple!

11

You should star in a Stan Lee penned Marvel comic with a name like that. Perhaps as Editor of a major metropolitan newspaper.

12

http://suicidemachine.org/

I’ve read an article that facebook keeps trying to disallow this group, but they always stay one step ahead.

13

Markxxx have you considered getting a LinkedIn account instead? That’s the “professional” site for business networking.

Also…do you need a FB account to find people on FB? If you’re convinced that your deleted profile could be found via Google and someone could…contact you? know you exist? Then wouldn’t the same be true for people you are looking for?