Google searches for how to cancel and delete Facebook, Instagram, and Threads accounts have seen rises in the U.S. since Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg
    • Retreaux@lemmy.worldEnglish
      69·
      21 days ago

      It was that combined with the fact that they create shadow profiles for your unborn child when your wife is pregnant. (Found out through FB being allowed to track your browsing history even off the app). That was the final straw right after the Cambridge Analytica issue.

      • kofe@lemmy.worldEnglish
        25·
        21 days ago

        Wait what the bloody fuck? I haven’t heard anything about this. Sounds right up their alley, but what evidence is it based on?

        • Retreaux@lemmy.worldEnglish
          21·
          21 days ago

          If you look up the practical application of Shadow profiles they have the ability to gather information about non-users, which also includes unborn children in the case of them discovering that the mother is pregnant through whatever web searches that they may be doing even outside of Facebook. The whole science of Shadow profiles used to strengthen the algorithm is incredibly frightening and part of the reason why I left Facebook.

          • JackbyDev@programming.devEnglish
            1·
            20 days ago

            I can almost excuse shadow profiles for things like “two people both have X contact in their phone”, but making them for unborn children? Lord have mercy. That’s genuinely crazy. It makes me wonder if it’s something like they just marked someone as pregnant based on searches (weird, but maybe acceptable, idk) and it got taken out of context? Hopefully? Either way it’s icky.

        • ditty@lemm.eeEnglish
          12·
          21 days ago

          I hadn’t heard of this either but here’s an article about Facebook keeping shadow profiles on non-users that references an article from 2012 where Target’s data collection determined a teen girl was pregnant before she told her dad

    • UristMcHolland@lemmy.worldEnglish
      12·
      20 days ago

      I deleted my Facebook account years ago, probably right around 2016. I met a new girl last year and she wanted me to make a Facebook account so she could send me stuff. I relented and made a “new” account using the same email I used back in 2016. Low and behold, Facebook never deleted a fucking thing.

    • Sabata@ani.socialEnglish
      12·
      21 days ago

      People should have deleted it as soon as their parents figured out how to make an account.

      • cybersandwich@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        20 days ago

        Haha! That’s what I did. When my aunt tried to friend request me on Facebook, I bailed.

        I joined back in college when it was an invite only walled-garden of college kids. Zucks pic was still in the banner when I joined iirc. They hadn’t release “the wall” or much of what Facebook eventually became.

        But when parents and coworkers started trying to friend request me I realized it was time to bail.

        So 12 years ago? Maybe just 10.

        I have never missed it at all.

    • Whateley@lemm.eeEnglish
      11·
      20 days ago

      I deleted mine shortly thereafter. I tried to convince friends and family to do the same but got accusations of being paranoid or a conspiracy theorist. Jump to now, everyone’s Christmas gifts from them this year was tatty bullshit from Temu that was advertised to them on Facebook and I spend most of my time with them dismantling conspiracy theories and misinformation they picked up from the dumbasses they interact with on that fucking site.

    • RagingRobot@lemmy.worldEnglish
      7·
      21 days ago

      It would be easier if they didn’t buy other products I already used. I hate that shit so much. I wish companies were all banned from buying other companies. A company should be one thing, not own all the things. It’s hard to choose who you do business with in our country because of this. Even if we all drop these apps today and move to something else they will try to buy that too.

    • Kalysta@lemm.eeEnglish
      2·
      20 days ago

      That’s when I started refusing to use it. I only still have my account because my family refuses to call when shit happens now and only seem to announce it on facebook. So i check it every 6 months.

    • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      1·
      20 days ago

      I beat it by a year or two. For me it was that every time I would log in, my cousin’s friend would say hi, and I’ve only talked to him like once at a family gathering he was at for some reason. I realized most of my Facebook use was deflecting that person instead of actually talking to friends. I looked into it and thought it was super creepy what Facebook was doing with my data, and realized I was getting nothing for all of that invasion of my privacy, so I bailed.

      I had to create an account a few years later (probably around 2016) because I needed to work with some FB employees for a couple weeks, and then I deleted it after that contract.

      Since then, I’ve avoided all Meta products.

    • corsicanguppy@lemmy.caEnglish
      22·
      21 days ago

      Stayed with FB despite Cambridge because Portal TV.

      I’ll still maintain an account because Portal TV.

      It’s a gorgeous product done wrong by meta and in need of a cloning.

  • ToastySaff@lemmy.worldEnglish
    781·
    21 days ago

    He’s getting very Trumpy with the orange tint and pale skin around the eyes.

  • Ithorian@lemmy.worldEnglish
    371·
    21 days ago

    We all know that in the end only maybe 1 or 2% max will delete their account

    • ThePrivacyPolicy@lemmy.caEnglish
      121·
      21 days ago

      Exactly this. Wasn’t Netflix going to sink after everyone cancelled when password sharing was banned? But everyone I know just ended up buying extra logins…

    • s_s@lemm.eeEnglish
      61·
      21 days ago

      That’s fine. 1% per uberweird news cycle is the death of facebook.

  • kipo@lemm.eeEnglish
    29·
    21 days ago

    According to Google Trends, related searches like “how to delete all photos facebook,” “alternative to facebook,” “how to quit facebook,” “how to delete threads account,” and “how to delete instagram account without logging in” have become breakout searches, with popularity suddenly increasing by over 5,000% compared to previous periods.

    So that is 51 times higher than usual? Am I mathing that correctly?

    I wish stories like this wouldn’t use percentages this way, and reported hard actual numbers to compare against.

      • Alenalda@lemmy.worldEnglish
        3·
        21 days ago

        And those are real users too. They are intching closer and close to just being a bot hellscape.

    • JackbyDev@programming.devEnglish
      2·
      20 days ago

      So true… When I see 100% more, I interpret it as 2x. But somewhere around, idk, maybe 300% I interpret “300% more” as 3x. I know that’s technically not correct, but it’s just where my brain goes. I think a good deal of people just throw around “n% more” and “n% as often” interchangeably without much thought.

      Luckily, the bigger the number the less of a difference between the two which is aligned with my brain using them the same.

      (And obviously, if it’s anything technical where it matters I would get clarification.)

  • hypnicjerk@lemmy.worldEnglish
    314·
    20 days ago

    i’m so tired of nothingburger feel good ‘stories’ about search trends

    this really is just reddit lite

    • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      1·
      20 days ago

      Eh, it goes harder in some of the bad things about Reddit, but it’s better in others. So it’s less “Reddit lite” and more discount Reddit.

  • rickdg@lemmy.worldEnglish
    211·
    21 days ago

    Once these platforms are perceived as a way for people to make a living somehow, they ain’t leaving. That’s why nice places like mastodon stay niche. Without virality, people don’t see the upside for them. They want a grift they can understand.

    • Zink@programming.devEnglish
      6·
      21 days ago

      That is sounding more and more like a benefit to me. Social media that functions as social media for humans and not just another giant corporate surveillance and marketing machine wearing a fun app costume.

      • rickdg@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        20 days ago

        I get it, but I also understand people that need to go “this is me, can I have some money?” on social media.

        • Zink@programming.devEnglish
          1·
          20 days ago

          Oh yeah no disagreement there. The way that social media of all types democratizes content creation and celebrity status is great.

          For me personally, the YouTube model is great where individuals can basically produce their own TV show or documentaries. But all the other big corporate social media services are meh in comparison. When it comes to interaction rather than consuming, that’s when I love Lemmy.

  • DocumentingReality@lemmy.cafeEnglish
    191·
    21 days ago

    I posted that article on Mastodon. So, yeah…

    I hope more people will find that these open source social media sites are much better run. As well, as a much better platform than Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, etc.

    Although, I do miss Myspace. The old platform.

    I deactivated my Twitter and Facebook accounts weeks ago. I have my friends and family “moved over” to Friendica. They seem to like it so far. I have even posted (on Friendica) a few links of other open source social sites for them to check out.

  • skillissuer@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
    13·
    21 days ago

    that’s some glorious schadenfreude

    zuck just few hours ago: “people who talk about leaving facebook are just virtue signalling”

  • gubblebumbum@lemm.eeEnglish
    131·
    21 days ago

    It comes preinstalled in a lot of phones and cant be uninstalled and in some phones they dont preinstall the main fb app instead they’d have something like ‘facebook manager’ or ‘something service’ which only shows up in app list when you select the “show system apps” option.

    • jdeath@lemm.eeEnglish
      6·
      20 days ago

      i worry about (future, AI enhanced) impersonation attempts so I just keep it secure and don’t post anything.

        • jdeath@lemm.eeEnglish
          1·
          20 days ago

          my grandma is still alive, some other family as well. with AI voice cloning and things i just foresee a lot of negative possibilities. maybe in another decade nobody i know would be on those places as well, hopefully there is some alternative for keeping up with family and old colleagues etc.

            • jdeath@lemm.eeEnglish
              1·
              20 days ago

              unfortunately can’t jet across the country regularly, as much as i might wish. and sometimes calls happen over (guess what) fb messenger. not everything is a conversation, but meta products cover a lot of ground beyond status updates at this point.

              • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
                1·
                20 days ago

                They do, but is that actually helping build your relationship? Or does it make you feel like you’re more connected than you are and justify calling/visiting a bit less?