Introduction

Facebook is known as one of the most commonly used social networking sites. Removing a Facebook account was a time-consuming and unpleasant procedure, but that is no longer the case. Did you get tired of Facebook? No worries. We’ll teach you how to deactivate or delete Facebook account permanently. Yes, there is a difference. Check out our in-depth article below to learn more about this. Moreover, you can earn knowledge on the process of removing particular items from your Facebook page.

Let us face it: 

Using Facebook does nothing to protect your online privacy. You’ll most likely recall all of the major scandals that have occurred recently. We still cannot forget the Cambridge Analytica scandal. In that occurrence, the private data of millions of Facebook users got revealed. And while Zuckerberg and the company distanced themselves by labeling it a breach of trust, the social media giant has made its fair share of dubious decisions. Giving hundreds of companies special access to sensitive user information to request financial data from U.S. institutions is also an example. It turns out that catching Facebook being dodgy is not hard — since it does it frequently. The security tokens of about 50 million people got hacked here. You have come to the proper spot if that is the last straw for you, and you are ready to leave Facebook. It is past time to reclaim your online privacy.

Deactivating vs. Deleting Facebook

Before we get into the step-by-step procedure, it is vital to understand the two alternatives available to you if you decide to deactivate your Facebook account. You have the option of deactivating or completely deleting your profile. As you may expect, the former choice maintains your data on the platform, while the latter completely erases everything.

If you delete your Facebook account, the following occurrences will happen: 

• Facebook will hide all the information on your profile from everyone without you.
• Specific data, such as sent messages, will continue to be available.
• On friend lists, your name will appear, but just for your pals.
• The admins of the groups you have joined will see your name, postings, and comments.
• You will be able to use Messenger as usual.

Your account will remain deactivated for as long as you like. When you will again enter back in or use the Facebook account to log into a linked app or service will force the process to reactivate.

If you decide to delete your Facebook account permanently, the following occurrences will happen: 

• You won’t be able to reactivate your account.
• All of the stuff you have added/uploaded to Facebook will be permanently deleted, with no way to recover it (unless you have downloaded an archive of your data beforehand).
• Facebook Login will no longer work for apps that use your Facebook account.
• Specific information, such as messages you have written to friends, will not be erased and will continue to be available to them.
• Messenger will be unavailable to you.
• Facebook gives you 30 days to reconsider your decision and cancel the deletion procedure.
• After expiring the time limit, Facebook will automatically remove your account and all associated data permanently.

Remember that Facebook will take up to 90 days to delete all of your information, and you won’t be able to access your Facebook account during that time.

How to Deactivate or Delete Your Facebook Account Permanently

How to Deactivate your Facebook account:

Want to keep yourself aloof from using Facebook but not sure whether it is a permanent or temporary wish? Then follow the deactivation process that is much easier instead of deleting this. To temporarily deactivate your account, you have to follow some steps:

• You have to finish steps 1, 2 from the permanent deletion guide. That means you have to first click on settings, go to your Facebook information, and Delete Your account and information.
• Press the Deactivate Account button.
• Then you can go to settings, then general, and deactivate your account option.
• Enter your current password and click the Continue option.
• You can again successfully reactivate your account by entering your password, and it will again work like before. All your data will remain as it was.  

How to Permanently Delete your Facebook account:

NOTE: Before entirely deleting your Facebook profile, you should consider downloading a copy of your information. Take a look at the following section for additional suggestions on how to perform that. If you stick to your decision and be ready to say goodbye to Facebook forever, follow these steps to delete your account permanently:

1.  Navigate to your account settings page. Alternatively, you can access your settings by clicking the arrow in the top-right corner.

2.  On the left, you will see a list of potential options. Click on Your Facebook Information and then Delete Your Account and Information and click there.

3.  Facebook will send you to a website with options for canceling your account or downloading your data. If nothing of these alternatives appeals to you, select Delete Account.

4.  After that, Facebook will ask you to enter your password. After you have completed it, click Continue.

5.  You have 30 days to cancel the deletion by logging into your account and clicking Cancel Deletion. Otherwise, you will have to wait a month until your Facebook account gets deleted forever.

If you have ever attempted to delete a Facebook account, you will recall it being a frustrating procedure that included a lot of back-and-forth between the help center and well-hidden settings. That is no longer the case since Facebook has made it much easier to delete your account in only a few clicks. Furthermore, there is no need to be concerned about accidental logins terminating the deletion procedure. Now you must verify this for yourself (check step 5 above).

How to keep track of Your Facebook Information:

You do not like Facebook but want to maintain the stuff you have put up on your profile? You can accomplish it easily if you follow these steps:

1.  Go to your Facebook Information > Download Your Information: on your settings page.

2.  Secondly, you need to enter the archived information page. You may select what you want to download, as well as the date range, archive type, and media quality, from this menu.

3.  Your personal information appears first, but scrolling down allows you to pick and select what information you want to see.

4.  After finishing, select your information, press the blue Create File button.

5.  In the Available Files tab, you can see how far you have progressed. If your file still works, the archive will appear as Pending until it is ready to be downloaded.

The Facebook archive tool, as previously said, is incredibly customizable. You have the option of downloading a specific sort of content, such as your photographs or opting for a comprehensive backup.

How to Delete your Facebook Information :

If you have decided to deactivate your account permanently, Facebook will take care of it for you. No need to do anything. You may just delete certain pieces of your Facebook posts manually to help make things go faster. It might significantly shorten the 90-day deletion period. Even if you don’t plan to delete Facebook anytime soon, it can help you clean up your search history and related applications. Have you ever cleared your internet browser’s history? It’s very much the same process on Facebook, only it’s a lot slower and takes a lot longer. Thankfully, the social media has evolved in this area as well. Viewing, managing, and deleting your data has never been easier. The activity log is where it all begins.

You can do it by following two methods:

1.  Go to Your Facebook Information > Activity Log on your settings page.

2.  Alternatively, go to your Facebook profile and select the Activity Log option (bottom-right corner of your cover photo, near to Update Info). The Filters section includes your activity log, which allows you to read and delete posts and comments, remove likes (by unliking), and clear search history.

TIP: The Filters tab has some hidden settings. To see them, browse to the relevant category and click More. Going through all your Facebook activity and material may be a time-consuming and exhausting task. To assist you, we have put up a few simple guidelines here. Take a look at them below:

●   How to Delete Facebook Connected Apps:

If you are on your way to permanently deleting your Facebook account, it is a good idea to delete the applications you have used to connect to Facebook. It is what you must do:

1.  Go to the Apps and Websites section of your Settings page.

2.  There exists a list of current, expired, and deleted applications. To get rid of an active app, check the box next to it and click Remove.

3.  Expired applications no longer ask for personal information, but you may still use your account to log in. You have the option of editing or removing the information they want.

TIP: If you wish to erase your Facebook account, you do not have to remove any related applications. However, if you want to use a linked app with your Facebook account, you may need to cancel the deletion process if you have already begun it.

●   How to Delete Your Facebook Search History:

Follow these procedures to delete your Facebook search history totally or partly:

1.  You can access it using the search bar to find what you search.

2.  Another option is to go to your activity log and scroll down to the Search History button at the bottom of the filter list.

3.  You may now delete individual searches by clicking Edit> Delete.

4.  In the top-right corner, select Clear Searches to delete all of your searches in bulk. For mobile users, the procedure is largely the same. Simply click to Settings & Privacy > Settings > Activity Log > Category> Search History to get your search history. You can remove individual searches or the entire list once more.

●   How to Delete Facebook Photos, Videos, and Albums:

The Filters tab allows you to quickly check and delete the photographs, videos, and albums you’ve published to Facebook. Here is how to do it:

1.  Go to your Activity Log and go through it.

2.  Select the Photos and Videos option from the drop-down menu.

3.  Facebook will show a list of your uploaded materials chronologically. Click the pencil-shaped symbol on the right side to remove an item.

TIP: You cannot erase your profile, cover, or featured photographs. On your timeline, you can only change the privacy settings of those. If you would rather erase whole albums, go to your profile’s Photos > Albums tab. You can instantly see and remove your collections from there.

●   How to Remove Facebook Posts and Comments:

Without having to wait up to 90 days, If you want to remove your Facebook comments, and posts then do the following:

1.  Go to your Activity Log and go through it.

2.  Select Comments from the drop-down menu next to Photos and Videos.

3.  Then click the pencil-shaped symbol on the right, then select Delete.

You can do the same thing with your Facebook status updates. The only change is that instead of clicking on Comments in the list, you will need to click on Posts. Under the Activity Log option, you will find the Posts button at the top of the list.

How to use Facebook’s Privacy Settings to their full extent:

You may not be ready to cancel or deactivate your Facebook account just yet, but you want to keep things as quiet as possible. To change or delete Facebook material, you can start with the brief guidelines given above. There is, however, more you can do. You will find the Privacy tab on the Settings page. It is essentially a central location for all of your Facebook privacy settings.

Here is what you can edit in this section:

Your future posts will be visible. You may make all of your future posts public, private, or only accessible to your Facebook friends, with choices to include or exclude specific persons. There are other options for customizing the settings. Examine the posts that you updated and people tagged you in. You can do it through the Activity Log, so if you followed one of our previous guides, you are already familiar with how to accomplish it. Past postings are visible. You may also modify the privacy settings on past posts you have made (but not those people tagged you in – they are within the discretion of the person who posted them). 

Warning: It might take a long time to examine each post separately.

How to find and contact you on Facebook:

The second portion of the privacy settings allow you to choose who may send you friend requests, view your friend list, and search for your profile using your email or phone number. Most significantly, you have control over whether or not external search engines connect to your Facebook page. You may limit future material you post to the audience you wish to reach by utilizing the Privacy option. Remember that this list focuses on general visible settings; there is no way to apply your new privacy settings to all of your posts. If you want them to follow the same settings, you need to spend an hour or two evaluating your old publications.

TIP: Do not waste time looking through postings from a few years ago? To erase outdated material in bulk, utilize the Activity log. Then you may go back and look at the postings from the previous year or two and adjust their privacy settings as needed.

Other Techniques for Protecting Your Online Data:

It has been a lot simpler to say goodbye to Facebook nowadays. Part of it is due to greater user access to tools and settings, but the main reason is that the social media network is not the best friend of your privacy. With recent incidents increasingly tarnishing Facebook’s image, it’s no wonder that an increasing number of users are abandoning the platform and removing their accounts.

How to control the tracking system of Facebook:

It is surprising that even if you don’t have your Facebook account anymore, Facebook will still track you. The connected apps of Facebook such as Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger, Oculus make this possible. Even if it doesn’t have any of those, its absurdly large ad network offers it access to the vast majority of the internet users, whether or not they’ve ever joined up for its social networks. Unfortunately, your alternatives are limited in this situation. At the Digital Advertising Alliance’s YourAdChoices site, you can request to remove yourself from various ad-targeting activities. You may utilize DuckDuckGo privacy browser also. In the absence of that, Facebook is likely to monitor you anyhow. Still, it is a good idea to start by deactivating your account. And now it appears to be as good a moment as any.

Conclusion

Hope you have gathered the knowledge on how to deactivate or delete facebook account permanently from this writing. Was this article helpful to you? If that is the case, pass it along to anyone else who might be interested in deactivating or permanently deleting their Facebook account.