https://mashable.com/article/facebook-how-to-delete-contact-info-meta
Category: Facebook
Wired on Deleting Facebook et al.
Wired provides detailed instructions on how to delete your Facebook and other social media accounts.
How To (Partially) Escape Facebook
Another day, another story of why everyone should leave Facebook. A woman who hasn’t used the site since 2013 found that, while she forgot about Facebook, Facebook didn’t forget about her. Zuckerberg and company keep tabs on nearly everyone’s online activity through the use of tracking cookies and arrangements with advertisers.
You can opt out of some of this tracking. First, visit this page to see what “off Facebook” activity they know about. To eliminate that, click on the “Clear History” link. Read or ignore the ominous warnings about how your ads will be less interesting and click the “Clear History” button to remove what’s listed. (If you think Facebook actually removes what they know about you, I have a bridge for sale in Brooklyn that I’d like to discuss with you.)
But wait, there’s more! This only eliminates what Facebook knows so far. Because they think that business ethics are something that happens to other people, they require another, hidden step to stop them from tracking you in the future. Click the “More Options” link, then “Manage Future Activity”, then the “Manage Future Activity” button in the dialog box that pops up, then finally turn off the toggle switch next to “Future Off-Facebook Activity”. Now they’ll stop tracking you (yeah, right) until they decide to do so again.
Even if you still use Facebook for some reason, you should follow these steps to deny them a small measure of the massive amounts of personal information they are collecting.
No More Facebook
Facebook is one of the largest cesspits on the Internet. A pathetically low signal to noise ratio, utter lack of respect for user privacy, biased censorship, and a user-hostile interface overwhelm what few reasons there are to participate there.
I’ve restricted my default Facebook view to only my immediate family and I rarely post. I keep Facebook Messenger around because it’s the easiest way for people I don’t regularly interact with to get in touch. My goal is to reduce my Facebook account to the equivalent of a white pages listing. If I have a compelling urge to share something, I’ll use this site.
As my first share, here’s what I’ve done to limit my Facebook footprint.
Set Up An Immediate Family List
On the left-hand sidebar of your Facebook home page, click on the Friend Lists link under Explore. The Create List button is at the top. Click that to get a popup window, give it a name like Immediate Family or Close Friends and add the people you interact with the most. Don’t worry, you’ll still see notifications from all of your Facebook Friends from the top toolbar.
Click on your new list and you’ll go to a page where the timeline has only those people. Bookmark this in your browser and use it whenever you go to Facebook.
Groups
On the left-hand sidebar of your new Facebook Immediate Family page, click on the Groups link under Explore. Check out all the groups you’ve joined. The number might surprise you. Ruthlessly eliminate as many as you can. Almost every group on Facebook has a separate web page you can follow instead.
Profile
Click on your name in the top bar, then the select About. Go through each section (Overview, Work and Education, Places You’ve Lived, Contact and Basic Info, Family and Relationships, Details About You, and Life Events) and delete it all. (Okay, I left in the link to my wife.)
Settings
Click on the triangle in the upper right of the top bar and select Settings. Click on Privacy on the left and set the How People Find and Contact You settings as restrictively as you can. At the very least, limit most settings to Friends. Click on Timeline and Tagging and do the same thing. Click on Mobile and remove your phone number (your battery will thank you). Click on **Public Posts* and limit access to your posts, comments, and profile to Friends.
One more potentially eye-opening setting is the number of applications that have access to your data. Click on Apps and remove as many as you possibly can. Aside from Facebook games, the only risky one I know of is Spotify. You’ll want to change your login to use your email address instead of Facebook before removing it from the apps that can access your account.
Delete Facebook
For those of you who are ready to completely leave Facebook, the process is documented here. You can save all of your Facebook content, including pictures, videos, and messages, before leaving. Click on the triangle in the upper right of your Facebook home page, select Settings, then click on Download a copy of your Facebook data. You’ll get an email saying that Facebook is creating the archive, then another with a link to it when it’s ready.