If you no longer trust or have the need to use Facebook, it’s quite easy to delete your account and data from the most popular social network in the world.
Facebook’s most valuable asset is your information, including your personal data, likes, comments, posts, and friends you make, as it allows the company figure out more about your personality to make billions of dollars using that information.
Further, things can get even worse when companies fail to protect your data, and your information falls into the wrong hands. As we’ve seen with the Cambridge Analytica fiasco, where the data company was able to gather information from 50 million users through an app that Facebook claims was built as a research tool, data that can be used in a number of malicious ways.
In this guide, you’ll learn the easy steps to delete forever your Facebook account and data.
How to download a backup of your Facebook data
Typically, a Facebook archive contains, your photos, chat history, network IP addresses, facial recognition data, advertisements you’ve clicked, identifiable personal information, check-ins, credit card info, and a lot more. Before deleting your account, it’s a good idea to create and download a backup of all your Facebook data.
To create and download an Facebook archive, do the following:
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Open Facebook settings page.
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Under “General Account Settings,” click the Download a copy link.
Facebook settings page -
In the “Download Your Information” page, click the Start My Archive button.
Download your information Facebook page -
Confirm your Facebook password, and click the Submit button.
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Click the Start My Archive button.
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Click the Okay button to confirm.
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Once you get confirmation email, go back to the “Download Your Information” page, and click the Download Archive button.
Download archive from Facebook -
Confirm your Facebook password, and click the Submit button.
Once you’ve downloaded the data archive, it’s time to delete your Facebook account forever, which means that after deletion, you won’t be able to recovered it.
How to delete your Facebook account
If you’re ready, simply open this Facebook link, and click the Delete My Account button.
After clicking the button, your account will be flagged for deletion, and it’ll no longer be accessible to anyone else who uses Facebook.
According to the company, there’s a termination delay, so it’ll take several days to process your request. During this delay period, make sure not to sign back into your account, if you do that the account deletion request will be canceled.
When the request has been processed, your Facebook account will no longer exist, but not every activity will be deleted. For example, comments you wrote in your friend’s profile may continue to appear after the account has been deleted. In addition, Facebook will keep your log records, but they’ll no longer be associated with your identity.
Although the process to delete your Facebook account is quite simple, bear in mind that it can take up to 90 days to completely delete the account and any information that may be associated with it.
In addition to deleting your Facebook account, remember that the social network giant also owns other companies, such as WhatsApp, Intagram, and many others, as such, you should also consider removing yourself from these services.
Mauro Huculak is a Windows How-To Expert who started Pureinfotech in 2010 as an independent online publication. He has also been a Windows Central contributor for nearly a decade. Mauro has over 15 years of experience writing comprehensive guides and creating professional videos about Windows and software, including Android and Linux. Before becoming a technology writer, he was an IT administrator for seven years. In total, Mauro has over 21 years of combined experience in technology. Throughout his career, he achieved different professional certifications from Microsoft (MSCA), Cisco (CCNP), VMware (VCP), and CompTIA (A+ and Network+), and he has been recognized as a Microsoft MVP for many years. You can follow him on X (Twitter), YouTube, LinkedIn and About.me. Email him at [email protected].