So I’ve done it.  I’ve decided to delete Facebook from my life.  Sorry Zuck, you’ve breached my trust one last time and you’re never getting another chance, ever.

This latest breach of trust is enormous in it’s breadth and scale.  The empty promises made by Facebook after each of these breaches of trust and/or data are just that, empty.

I’ve watched every minute of the two days of testimony and the hours of Christopher Wylie’s testimony and it makes for some very sobering listening.

Facebook is simply not to be trusted, at all.

I’ve permanently deleted my presence on the platform and removed the app and messenger from my iPad.

About 2 years ago I also had the app on my Android phone.  When the audio processing and listening became apparent I decided to stop using it.  I uninstalled the application and was horrified to discover that the majority of that application, the “background services” remained on my phone.  Apparently, for convenience reasons.  Who’s convenience is a mysteryis obvious, it certainly wasn’t for mine.

In order to get these huge background service uninstalled I had to delve down into the Linux terminal on the phone and force uninstall the service using sudo commands.  Now, how many Android users are even aware it’s actually Linux?  Of those, how many would even think to check there is a service to remove?  Meanwhile the average user thinks they’ve uninstalled Facebook.  This is the kind of behaviour that landed Microsoft in the courts in the 1990s but it seems Facebook is getting away with it, or at least has been until recently.

Way back in 2011 I was having conversations with my techy friends on how we were waiting for the backlash to arrive, I didn’t think it would take as long as it has but I also didn’t think the sheer audacity and arrogance of the company would stretch as far as it clearly has.  We were waiting … that wait is finally over.

For them to have known about the Cambridge Analytica issue as far back as 2015 and stay silent on the issue is really the crux of the problem, apart from the obvious technical ones. Zuckerburg can apologise all he likes.  He can also appear as sorry as he likes, it’s no longer enough.  Trust has left the building …

I’ve been reminded why I never used the option to “Log in with Facebook”, so I’ve not even had anything to migrate in terms of security.  I just downloaded my data and then requested deletion.  For anyone reading this, deactivating is not deleting.  In order to request Facebook delete your data you have to find this very hard to find page.

https://www.facebook.com/help/delete_account

I couldn’t find a link to this page anywhere in the Facebook support pages, I had to [insert name of large search engine] for it (the irony).

Anyway, I would urge anyone and everyone to also delete Facebook.  It is simply not to be trusted with anything.

Lets not forget the psychological experiments from 2014.  But it’s OK, apparently they were allowed to manipulate users as it was in the T&Cs.  Er … What?

Honestly, just go delete your account now.  Do it.