I deactivated my two Facebook accounts last week. I am not alone.
This happened today:
Key Takeaway: Facebook’s benefits are overwhelmed by problems inherent in its business model, its failure to safeguard personal information, and its lack of transparency and accountability.
Find Documents:
Press Release: http://nepc.info/node/9115
Contact:
Kevin Welner: (303) 492-8370, kevin.welner@colorado.edu
Alex Molnar: (480) 797-7261, nepc.molnar@gmail.com
Learn More:
NEPC Resources on School Commercialism
BOULDER, CO (March 27, 2018) – The National Education Policy Center (NEPC) will delete its Facebook account on Wednesday March 28. We have already removed social sharing via Facebook from the NEPC website and our other communication tools.
While Facebook has many benefits, we feel compelled to disassociate ourselves from the invasive data mining and the third-party targeting of users inherent in its business model. The goal of the NEPC is to provide high-quality information in support of democratic deliberation. Deceitful micro-targeted propaganda is made possible by Facebook data and undermines democracy. Our reading of the evidence and record tells us that neither Facebook nor any other opaque, unregulated, and unaccountable private entity should have control over the private data of billions of people. Whatever services are provided by the Facebook platform are overwhelmed by Facebook’s business model, its lack of transparency, its failure to safeguard the personal information of its users, and its lack of accountability.
NEPC annual reports on Schoolhouse Commercialism have highlighted the intensifying surveillance culture and other dangers to student privacy in the digital age, and Facebook has emerged as a primary culprit. It would be disingenuous for us to use Facebook to promote those reports and other NEPC work.
We don’t pretend that this was an easy step. Communication of research lies at the heart of NEPC’s mission, and social media are a big part of communications—with Facebook positioned as a dominant social media platform. Last month, NEPC’s “Schools of Opportunity” project benefited hugely from a short video that went viral on Facebook, garnering over a million views.
Yet the more we learned about Facebook’s data gathering , and in particular the Cambridge Analytica scandal , the more we couldn’t avoid the conclusion that Facebook’s benefits are far outweighed by its dangers. Facebook is designed in ways that are inherently troubling. As Facebook’s first president warned, “God only knows what it’s doing to our children’s brains .” He disclosed that Facebook was designed to create a “social validation feedback loop” that we now know does indeed alter brain chemistry by triggering dopamine hits each time a posting is liked. And marketers are taking full advantage .
Consider also this passage from a recent article in The Guardian (internal links included):
That Silicon Valley parents use the money they earn from tech to send their children to tech-free schools is no secret. But such qualms have not stopped the tech companies themselves from continuing to push their products on to other people’s children, both through partnerships with school districts and special apps for children as young as six.
In January 2018, the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood sent Mark Zuckerberg a letter , signed by over 100 child advocates, educators, and experts in child development, requesting that Facebook discontinue its Messenger Kids app for children. A growing body of research demonstrates that excessive use of digital devices and social media is harmful to children and teens, making it likely that this new app—designed to encourage greater use of digital devices and social media among children—will undermine children’s healthy development. Facebook continues to promote Messenger Kids.
This problem is much larger than Facebook, but we cannot use that fact to justify inaction. We cannot, in good conscience, continue to lend tacit support to Facebook. NEPC has concluded that encouraging our readers to provide information that will be used by Facebook and its clients to tailor and limit information to which our readers will then be exposed contradicts our defined organizational mission, which is to support democratic deliberation about education policy.
We at NEPC encourage other education organizations to consider whether they too should delete their Facebook accounts, and we call upon policy makers to develop policies that provide strict public oversight of social media platforms.
Schools and Digital Platforms
NEPC’s own publications describe how digital platforms work through schools to pull children into the surveillance economy—an unregulated economy that these platforms have worked to construct and from which they benefit financially. “Students are offered no choice,” explains Faith Boninger, co-author with Alex Molnar of NEPC’s commercialism reports. As one student told Boninger and Molnar, “I can’t delete my Facebook account. My school activities have Facebook groups that I have to access. Maybe I can delete my account when I graduate.”
Molnar, who is NEPC’s Publications Director, warns that “students are tied to Facebook by their school-related activities, and they unwillingly and usually unwittingly provide Facebook with information that is used to limit what they are exposed to on-line and funnel them to worldviews that will reward Facebook’s clients.”
Boninger and Molnar add that their research has shown that digital platforms being promoted for school use are neither well understood by educators nor adequately regulated by existing policy and law. Says Molnar, “the kind of abuses inherent in Facebook’s business model, management structure, and lack of transparency are, without question, also occurring in schools and classrooms every day via social networks and digital platforms.”
Learn more about NEPC research on digital marketing and data gathering in schools at http://nepc.colorado.edu/ceru-home.
The following organizations also have resources on data gathering from children and in schools: Campaign for Commercial-Free Childhood , Center for Digital Democracy , Electronic Frontier Foundation , Electronic Privacy Information Center , and the Parent Coalition for Student Privacy .
We encourage people to distribute this announcement as widely as possible and to continue to share the work of the National Education Policy Center with others.
Yippee! Excellent and principled.
Virus-free. http://www.avg.com
On Tue, Mar 27, 2018 at 10:00 AM, Diane Ravitch’s blog wrote:
> dianeravitch posted: “I deactivated my two Facebook accounts last week. I > am not alone. This happened today: Key Takeaway: Facebook’s benefits are > overwhelmed by problems inherent in its business model, its failure to > safeguard personal information, and its lack of trans” >
Deactivation leaves data in tact. You must delete to have Facebook erase your data. The delete command is a bit hard to find but it is there.
Michael,
I had trouble deactivating my FB account (I had two). I deactivated one, then when I tried to deactivate the other, the site closed down with a message that my time had expired. I tried a dozen times before I was able to deactivate. I wanted to delete but never found the route. Please explain.
Since I deleted my account I can’t go back in there as Facebook makes clear that deletion does not permit reactivation and therefore I am unable to retrace the steps to find the delete command. As I recall there was a “manage account” somewhere in the settings menu or sub menu. In there I recall seeing instructions on how to deactivate or delete in one sentence/link which I clicked on and found the delete command.
Very sorry I cannot not be more specific.
WordPress won’t let me post a link to a Guardian article I read. Try searching with keywords ‘Guardian + Facebook + delete’ to find it.
There we go. I was able to post search instructions. Now let’s try the title of the article: How to Delete Your Facebook Account. (The Guardian has been most active covering this subject.)
It’s a wonder ANYONE is still with Facebook after the recent revelation that Facebook records iPhone and Android users call and text metadata without their explicit permission
Facebook should probably be renamed “Scrapebook” because they are “scraping” data from the accounts of their users that can be used (and has already been used by Cambridge Analytica) to produce detailed personality profiles of millions of Facebook users.
This is an incredibly compelling argument to abandon Facebook
Deactivate is not like delete. Data remains in tact. Must delete to have Facebook erase your data. The delete is a bit hard to find but it exists.
I stopped using Facebook and requested that my accounted and data be deleted. I received an email from Facebook that my data will be deleted within 14 days.
It is important that you dig a little deeper to delete. The only option shown up front is to deactivate which leaves all your data in tact.
Unfortunately, in practical terms, data are never really “deleted”.
Most businesses regularly make backup copies of all their data so even if the data are deleted from the operating database, they still exist elsewhere.
Even if Fakebook is sincere in their promise to “delete” user data ( and i have my doubts), it is very unlikely that they would actually make the effort to delete ALL copies, and we actually know that Fakebook data have already been shared with outside individuals and companies, so even if the data were deleted from all the places Fakebook stores them, they might still exist.
Which leaves the possibility (likelihood) that some time in the future, somebody or somebotty will retrieve and use the data.
The best thing Fakebook users can do at this point is to ensure that Fakebook gets no MORE data from them.
I agree. Just hoping now that Facebook is being scrutinized by the FTC that there is at least a possibility that data will actually be deleted as stated. I will also call Google’s Project Fi cellphone service to find out if I could stop them from sharing my phone data since every call I made/received is listed on my facebook data and is what finally pushed me to quit Facebook.
Not sure what good calling Google will do.
That strikes me as a little like asking the Mafia to ensure that property that was stolen from you and passed along to them will be returned.
🙂
I’d have to say that the only non governmental organization that has more private data on individuals than Fakebook is Google.
And you don’t even have to have a Google account for that. Just use their search engine.
I called Google and was assured data is not shared and that it is the Facebook app and messenger app that record and share data to Facebook so I erased both.
“I called Google and was assured….”
And as soon as you hung up they uncrossed their fingers….
And tried to stop laughing.
“Don’t be Google”
Rest assured
We never spy
Trust our word
We never lie
Rest assured, all your data is securely stored by the NSA.
Instead of Google search engine, try duck duck go. They do not track your data.
“Instead of Google search engine, try duck duck go. They do not track your data.” — your data is tracked one way or another, this you can be assured of. The only way to avoid it is to not use internet. Also, do not pay with credit cards: get cash from bank or ATMs, then exchange this cash onto other bank notes with different numbers, then use them in cash transactions. Do not use public libraries: they ask for your SSN, and when you check out Mein Kampf, somewhere a red light comes on.
Better yet, move to an island or a desert without any communication with the outside world.
In China and Russia they are prohibiting VPNs now because VPNs allow you to hide your identity and location to “man in the middle” traffic sniffers. So, you can try using a VPN, but then again, the security services will get interested why are you doing it, probably because you have to hide something, so they will single you out and will track you anyway, but now instead of being one of the billions of lemmings you will be a direct target.
All the “recent revelations” are not recent and not new. One must be completely out of touch with reality to expect anything different. This is how the internet works: they track you, they build your profile, they sell your profile, they show you messages relevant to your profile whether it is jewelry or guns or political adverts.
I suggest avoiding Google, Amazon and pretty much any website. Do not use email as it all goes through NSA filters.
Anything – everything – you do online is recorded and analyzed. There is no privacy. Switch to snail mail.
Amen, we all need to get off of Facebook and these other social platforms. We can connect the old fashion way
Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Education.
I haven’t done this officially, but haven’t been on Facebook since the announcement came out. Thank you for doing this!
Deactivation leaves your data in tact. You must choose “delete” to have Facebook erase your data. I know, it’s debatable if the data is really permanently erased but that is what Facebook states. Facebook makes it a bit difficult to find the delete command but it is there if you search carefully.
I would not be surprised if pressing delete saves all your data to Mark Zuckerberg’s personal hard drive — for his “retirement”.
He is seeing his fortune go up in smoke (losing billions by the day) and is undoubtedly looking for a way of salvaging what is left of his business.
FB has 2 billion subscribers. Zuck can afford to lose a million or two and get by.
You are as cynical as I am! (LOL)
“Getting Buy”
Getting by is not enough
For wealthy Facebook guy
Millions lost are mighty rough
When reaching for the sky
👏 Good MOVE.
When I discovered that all my calls/emails etc were recorded I deceided to drop Facebook. I called Google’s Project Fi to ask that they not share my info, they told me nothing is shared by Project Fi and that it was Facebook/messenger aps that record the data. So besides dropping Facebook I also deleted all aps related to Facebook.
I “deleted” –not deactivated –my Facebook account five months ago. However I recently visited a political group’s Facebook site and was offered the chance to log back in. It recognized me and displayed my user name; all I had to do was type in my password to get back on. So, surprise, surprise, Facebook was lying when it said it was deleting my account. This sliminess is reason enough to quit Facebook. Robert Kuttner makes a great point in this op-ed: on-line social networking and data collection do not have to go hand-in-hand. There’s a surveillance-free alternative called WeMe. It’s time we said, “Enough!”. I can imagine the demise of Facebook.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/opinion-kuttner-facebook-regulation_us_5ab7ec8be4b054d118e41c76
With FB under FTC scrutiny It may be slightly possible that privacy will be temporarily respected.
It will be interesting to see Zuckerberg’s and FB’s response to the EU’S new GDPR (Global Data Protection Regulation) slated to take effect in May. By the GDPR, data collected about a person belongs to the person and only to the person and the person has full authority over the data. So when the person says, “delete me,” then all data about the person must be deleted from everywhere the data may be stored. Stiff financial fines are tagged to noncompliance.
Does Twitter come next?
If you want to erase your data on Facebook you must “delete” not deactivate your account. Facebook keeps personal data of deactivated accounts. The delete command is a bit hard to find. If you want Facebook to delete your data you must go to settings, manage account, then you will be given a choice to deactivate or delete.