Sunday, May 16, 2010

"Quit Facebook" Day

Facebook members unite! And quit!
Following issues over users' privacy, a global Facebook exit is being urged for Monday May 31 2010. And momentum seems to be building: just last week, the phrase "how to quit Facebook" generated nearly 17 million Google results and "how do I delete my Facebook account?" close to 16 million...in a one-day period! Granted, the 33 million search results do not mean all of those users will actually delete their Facebook accounts, but it indicates a lot of pissed-off people!
One of the major problems users had was new privacy settings: lengthy, confusing and many members made private information public unknowingly. Then there was the constant stream of notifications and puerile quiz results. Plus there have been tragic cases where women have gone to meet men they'd met on Facebook, only to be murdered.
There're many articles to help users delete their Facebook accounts. Of course, they need to know that, although deleting their account means they’ll never see that data again, Facebook can - and will continue to use it for data mining.
If you're going to quit Facebook, remember it takes two weeks to be fully deleted (note that 'delete' is different to 'deactivate'). If you log-in to your account within these 2 weeks (just to check you're actually deleted), the request to delete your account will be voided and you'll still be in the loop.
PS: 27 May 2010 - Facebook suddenly announces easier privacy settings! Sounds desperate to me!
PS: 30 May 2010 - ...and reviewers are saying: "Is that the best you've got for us?"

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