As the fallout from the Facebook, Cambridge Analytica scandal continues, many Americans are searching for clues on how much information Facebook has on them and may have shared.
Several weeks ago, Cambridge Analytica released a report regarding the access of millions of Facebook user’s data.
A Cambridge University researcher made an app that asked Facebook users to take a personality test. The test opened the door to the participants’ personal information and their friends’ information.
Wednesday, Facebook officials upped the numbers saying they believe the Facebook information of up to 87 million people — mostly in the US — may have been improperly shared with Cambridge Analytica.
The initial announcement sent many users scrambling to find out how much Facebook truly knew about them. What the found scared many people who were on the social networking giant.
But that may not have been the end of the information journey.
A meme is now going around the internet suggesting that Facebook has labeled you based off what they believe your political leanings are based on the things you’ve posted.
But… that’s not all.
Facebook also tracks if you have children (and their ages), what type of phone you use, if you’ve recently traveled, your multicultural affinity and even if you are away from your hometown and family.
You can find out what Facebook is tracking by clicking here.
With all that information being tracked, many people are wanting to delete everything that Facebook knows about you.
According to CNBC, deleting your account is the best way to get everything removed, save for log records that Facebook says will stick around in its databases “but are disassociated from personal identifiers.”
If you follow these steps you will no longer have a Facebook account. Hint: You may want to download all your photos, etc before you take this step.
According to Facebook, when you delete your account, people won’t be able to see it on the social networking site. But it may take up to 90 days from the beginning of the deletion process to delete all of the things you’ve posted, like your photos, status updates or other data stored in backup systems.
Facebook also says that you have a couple of delays to change your mind after placing a deletion request. You can cancel it by logging back in during that time, but your data is gone once the window closes.
You should be warned, deleting your Facebook account could have other repercussions that you might not think about, at first. Many people use Facebook to authenticate other apps such as Tinder, Airbnb and Venmo, CNN Tech points out.
Have a premium Spotify account with your Facebook account? If you do, you’ll have to cancel your subscription, create a new one but also lose all of your playlist that you’ve spent time making.
Facebook is more than just Facebook.com, CNN Tech says. It also owns Instagram and WhatsApp, so if you want to ditch the company, you’ll have to get rid of those, as well.
If you aren’t ready to fully ditch Facebook, you can “deactivate” your account for a temporary amount of time and still have access to all of your history when you come back.
