A while ago I got the message on both Facebook and Instagram to either consent to viewing targeted ads or paying the subscription fee. I did neither, and it soon went away. Since yesterday though, I got it again and have no access to any part of facebook, most importantly the accounts section of the settings from where I can delete my account.
How can I delete my account without consenting or paying the fee?
Facebook has been selling your data to ad companies since the day you created your account. This only changes what you visually see on the website. It makes absolutely zero difference from a data collection standpoint. Just consent so you can delete your accounts with less hassle. Filing GDPR complaints through email is a pain, takes a long time, and has no guarantee that they’ll actually accept it. Plus, some sites (likely including Facebook) will ask for a government ID to verify you live in an area where the GDPR applies. It isn’t worth the trouble when there are easier methods. Once you’re able to log in, you should be able to access a GDPR portal somewhere in case you still want to file a report before deleting your account, but it’s up to you if you want to go through the trouble. At the very least that saves you from having to write a letter and either email or mail it to them. With Facebook’s consistent history of violating GDPR, I honestly don’t even feel like it’s worth it to try. Chances are that your data will still be sold regardless. Just look at all the lawsuits against Facebook for GDPR violations in the past years.
I wish you posted this when it happened, I mean the first pop up, I would have told you not to do that, and just delete them because you’re not safe there…
Facebook is like a dangerous neighborhood, or a war zone, you gotta have your screenshot app ready to capture at all times if you’re there, that been said;
I got the message on both Facebook and Instagram to either consent to viewing targeted ads or paying the subscription fee. I did neither, and it soon went away. Since yesterday though, I got it again and have no access to any part of facebook
The Zuck loves this kind of behavior, it’s by design, they give you a pop up to agree to some shit, but they don’t make it mandatory, or they don’t make it seem to be, and a hour, a day, a month later, they lock you off your account ( and data ), with the only option being to provide verification to get access to your stuff, and they’ll make the verification process as painful as possible, and most importantly as humiliating as possible, what? Asking people to hold their real ID next to their face is dystopian to say the least… still even after you do that, they’ll just say : verification failed and no matter what you do, you can’t get access, so your pics and stuff are still there but you don’t own them anymore
so to get this into perspective, you pay us a fee, or you pay with your data ( which then we sell as a service ), if you say no ( like you did ), we take what you have given us so far ( and what we were able to get from you by spying on you ), and we go separate ways
File a GDPR complaint, but first I would suggest to try to contact Meta’s support by mail
Where can I find a good example of a GDPR compliant email to request any and all my data that they have, to request it to be deleted, and to delete my account?
I’m afraid it’s not that simple, there is no clear procedure on how to go about filing ( lodging ) a complaint, try to contact one of these DPOs found here :
I am in the same situation, If you just want to delete your account, it seems accessing this url: https://www.facebook.com/help/delete_account does not trigger the consent message.
If you want to access Facebook and Instagram without accepting the ads, there are some weird ways I found that kind of works:
For Instagram in a browser you can go to https://www.instagram.com/consent/?flow= this will go to a page that says “Sorry, this page isn’t available.” but you can then go to the homepage without triggering the consent message. (some actions like loading a story will though) Another way on mobile (tested on Firefox android) is to start from the browser and when the consent message shows up click on the 3 dots → “Open in an application” the app then open to a blank page and you can go back to home.
I have little faith in my country’s data protection officer who is responsible for handling stuff like this. I had to deal with them while making a complaint about reddit not complying with the GDPR by not allowing me to remove upvotes/downvotes in a reasonable manner, and also after manually deleting all my posts and comments there were still 2 comments that show up on my reddit profile only if it is viewed “signed out” (i.e. from an incognito browser), but not while I am signed in to the account. There is no way to delete them from within my account. The reply I got from them after several months was that since there was no identifiable data in those 2 comments and since after deleting the account it would show up as u/deleted that my case was closed.
The incompetence of my government officials (more so than any other country) would be a laughing matter if I wasn’t so angry about the whole situation.
tl;dr: My country’s data protection officer and office is a joke and I have lost faith in them to be able to handle anything. I am considering going directly to the Irish DPO if that is who meta ultimately answers to.
You can send a formal letter requesting that all your data be deleted, stating that you can’t log in and do not agree with their ToS. Theoretically they have to do it. Good luck.
They don’t mince words, that’s for sure! They apparently don’t have any solutions for you. I think they just wanted to make that clear, probably so you didn’t get the wrong idea about them.
I would like to but I have no idea what to write in it. Also, based on previous interaction with my DPO at the time of the reddit fiasco (and if I’m not mistaken as per the GDPR) I first have to attempt to contact the entity holding my data before filling in a complaint form. Furthermore as I have stated in another comment, I have completely lost faith in my country’s DPO after having to go through them for reddit’s non-compliance with the GDPR, and honestly believe they are just incompetent and don’t fully understand the laws their entire position was created to defend.
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If i dont consent though they cant sell my data to ad companies, right?
Facebook has been selling your data to ad companies since the day you created your account. This only changes what you visually see on the website. It makes absolutely zero difference from a data collection standpoint. Just consent so you can delete your accounts with less hassle. Filing GDPR complaints through email is a pain, takes a long time, and has no guarantee that they’ll actually accept it. Plus, some sites (likely including Facebook) will ask for a government ID to verify you live in an area where the GDPR applies. It isn’t worth the trouble when there are easier methods. Once you’re able to log in, you should be able to access a GDPR portal somewhere in case you still want to file a report before deleting your account, but it’s up to you if you want to go through the trouble. At the very least that saves you from having to write a letter and either email or mail it to them. With Facebook’s consistent history of violating GDPR, I honestly don’t even feel like it’s worth it to try. Chances are that your data will still be sold regardless. Just look at all the lawsuits against Facebook for GDPR violations in the past years.
This is sad, but thanks for the insight
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Depressing but thanks for the help :/
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Maybe try some mobile versions of Facebook Like m.facebook.com in my experience it has less features, and even less security features
It shows the message too
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HA! Good one, I’d like to suggest it too ❤️🔥
I wish you posted this when it happened, I mean the first pop up, I would have told you not to do that, and just delete them because you’re not safe there…
Facebook is like a dangerous neighborhood, or a war zone, you gotta have your screenshot app ready to capture at all times if you’re there, that been said;
The Zuck loves this kind of behavior, it’s by design, they give you a pop up to agree to some shit, but they don’t make it mandatory, or they don’t make it seem to be, and a hour, a day, a month later, they lock you off your account ( and data ), with the only option being to provide verification to get access to your stuff, and they’ll make the verification process as painful as possible, and most importantly as humiliating as possible, what? Asking people to hold their real ID next to their face is dystopian to say the least… still even after you do that, they’ll just say : verification failed and no matter what you do, you can’t get access, so your pics and stuff are still there but you don’t own them anymore
so to get this into perspective, you pay us a fee, or you pay with your data ( which then we sell as a service ), if you say no ( like you did ), we take what you have given us so far ( and what we were able to get from you by spying on you ), and we go separate ways
File a GDPR complaint, but first I would suggest to try to contact Meta’s support by mail
support@fb.com or platformcs@support.facebook.com
Edit : many have tried to reach Meta support, it doesn’t seem to be possible…
Where can I find a good example of a GDPR compliant email to request any and all my data that they have, to request it to be deleted, and to delete my account?
I’m afraid it’s not that simple, there is no clear procedure on how to go about filing ( lodging ) a complaint, try to contact one of these DPOs found here :
https://www.edps.europa.eu/data-protection/data-protection/glossary/d_en#data_protection_officer
And here’s how to go about it :
https://noyb.eu/en/exercise-your-rights-article-77-complain-your-dpa
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I did, years ago, but they still have my accounts because they locked me out
I am in the same situation, If you just want to delete your account, it seems accessing this url: https://www.facebook.com/help/delete_account does not trigger the consent message.
If you want to access Facebook and Instagram without accepting the ads, there are some weird ways I found that kind of works:
For Instagram in a browser you can go to https://www.instagram.com/consent/?flow= this will go to a page that says “Sorry, this page isn’t available.” but you can then go to the homepage without triggering the consent message. (some actions like loading a story will though) Another way on mobile (tested on Firefox android) is to start from the browser and when the consent message shows up click on the 3 dots → “Open in an application” the app then open to a blank page and you can go back to home.
For Facebook this tricks doesn’t seem to work, but other ways seems to, like using https://mbasic.facebook.com/
Your trickery has absolutely no effect on how much of your data Facebook collects and sells. But if it makes you feel better…
This seems to work for now. Thanks
Do you have an elected representative who can put this question to them?
I have little faith in my country’s data protection officer who is responsible for handling stuff like this. I had to deal with them while making a complaint about reddit not complying with the GDPR by not allowing me to remove upvotes/downvotes in a reasonable manner, and also after manually deleting all my posts and comments there were still 2 comments that show up on my reddit profile only if it is viewed “signed out” (i.e. from an incognito browser), but not while I am signed in to the account. There is no way to delete them from within my account. The reply I got from them after several months was that since there was no identifiable data in those 2 comments and since after deleting the account it would show up as u/deleted that my case was closed.
The incompetence of my government officials (more so than any other country) would be a laughing matter if I wasn’t so angry about the whole situation.
tl;dr: My country’s data protection officer and office is a joke and I have lost faith in them to be able to handle anything. I am considering going directly to the Irish DPO if that is who meta ultimately answers to.
You can send a formal letter requesting that all your data be deleted, stating that you can’t log in and do not agree with their ToS. Theoretically they have to do it. Good luck.
No
Very helpful reply, thanks for that…
They don’t mince words, that’s for sure! They apparently don’t have any solutions for you. I think they just wanted to make that clear, probably so you didn’t get the wrong idea about them.
Make a GDPR complaint and hopefully Facebook get a huge fine
I would like to but I have no idea what to write in it. Also, based on previous interaction with my DPO at the time of the reddit fiasco (and if I’m not mistaken as per the GDPR) I first have to attempt to contact the entity holding my data before filling in a complaint form. Furthermore as I have stated in another comment, I have completely lost faith in my country’s DPO after having to go through them for reddit’s non-compliance with the GDPR, and honestly believe they are just incompetent and don’t fully understand the laws their entire position was created to defend.