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How do I get Facebook out of my life completely?

Question:

How do I completely get Facebook out of my life? I didn’t ever register (to
my knowledge) and don’t wish to be in their records and will never voluntarily
have anything to do with them.

In this excerpt from
Answercast #27
, I take a look at some strategies that can be used to
minimize Facebook’s effect on your computer life.

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Banishing Facebook

If you haven’t registered, then you’ve done everything you can. You have not set up an account with Facebook and that’s what you have control over.

The problem is that you don’t have control over other people. So they may invite you to Facebook. They may give Facebook your email address in order for that invitation to be sent. As a result, Facebook has your email address.

Controlling your friends

There’s no way around that. Unless you can absolutely convince all of your friends – absolutely every single one of them – to never, ever give your email address to Facebook, then there’s really not a lot you can do.

Facebook will have your email address. They may, in fact, have other reference to you that have been provided by your friends who are on Facebook.

Ignore it

The suggestion I have is basically do what you’ve done.

In other words, don’t create a Facebook account and then when you get notifications from Facebook, delete them. That’s pretty much the best you can do.

Those are all of the things that are in your control. To the degree that you can control your friends, you can certainly ask them not to put you on Facebook: Not to invite you to Facebook.

If you’re already getting Facebook notifications, it’s too late. Facebook already has your email address and they may very well try and recommend you as a friend to other friends of yours who are on Facebook (depending on all the other friends that might have been trying to connect with you that as well.)

So like I said, don’t create an account; delete all of the Facebook emails and you’ve done pretty much everything you can.

Do this

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6 comments on “How do I get Facebook out of my life completely?”

  1. The hard thing is that a good portion of websites out there use some sort of social networking integration. So if you are reading an webpage, even if you aren’t on the social network, they truly aren’t out of your life.

    Reply
  2. I followed your instructions very carefully. However, the wretched programme now tells me my password in not correct. On changing it, I get the same response. Is there any way I could infect them with the Black Death?

    Reply
  3. Might want to mention that not all “Facebook notifications” are from FB.
    Mouse over the reply link and you might just be surprised at the number of different places claiming to be FB.
    As for other web sites connecting to “social networks” I always use anti-tracking software and if I find a need to connect to such crap I have set up a number of false accounts with totality made up info which is nowhere near the truth….let them data mine that!

    Reply
  4. It won’t stop other people from creating an account in your name, posting a picture of you and making believe you are actually using it. Have seen it happen with middle school kids to be mean (or bully) other kids. I know of one instance where the parents tried to get Facebook/School/Police to do something about it, and nobody would/could. They finally ended up moving to another school district.

    Reply
  5. @Dan above… Sad but true. The problem is, moving to an other district, or not, that account is still posted on F.B. with the kid’s name, picture, etc… Kids @ the new school will be on it by the end of the first day.
    I have a F.B. account. Have since it came out. I used to play some of the games, like Mafia Wars, Farmtown, etc… once it became a drama infected he said/she said fest, I’ve not gone back. They have pretty much left me alone after I deleted my email address from my F.B. profile & entered a bogus one.
    I use Last Pass to log in to all my different accounts. I’ve never had a problem & it’s free & easy to use. J.

    Reply
  6. I have a facebook for business page and lost the password. I have tried all three recovery methods multiple times and have tried contacting facebook several times as well. Facebook can not identify the page. I would desperately like to take the page down. Any help that you can provide to help me get back into the account would be greatly greatly appreciated! Thank you!

    Reply

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