Do you want to know how to delete a Facebook account permanently? If you have come this far, I imagine that this is your big question. For this reason, we have prepared this step-by-step guide with everything you need to know to cancel your profile.

However, this topic is not as simple as you think. The simple fact of deleting your Facebook account is not everything, but before doing so you should also analyze some of the pros and cons of doing so… such as:

What is Facebook going to do with all the data you’ve already uploaded to it?

If I were in your place, I would also start thinking about: will I continue to have control of the data and content shared on this platform? What will they do with all my information? Can I request that my contents be deleted forever?

In short, what about all your activity to date. With this policy on issues of protection and control of personal data in social networks, not always everything is so clear. That is why we will also review this topic.

Can Facebook arbitrarily delete my account?

Returning to the subject at hand, in addition to wanting to delete your Facebook account yourself , it may be that this network will ban or terminate your profile arbitrarily and almost without prior notice.

To carry out this analysis and explain all these issues in depth, as well as the step-by-step procedure that you must carry out, I count on the help of Mariela Quiroga in this guest post.

She is part of the team of my agency “JF-Digital” and “Webescuela”, my own school of Digital Marketing and Online Business.

Now, I leave you with the complete guide that Mariela has prepared for us!

How to delete a Facebook account step by step?

I am sure that if you are here, it is because you already have it more or less clear. Therefore, later I will expand reviewing everything that José has promised you in the introduction of this tutorial. But, now, I prefer that we go directly to the point.

So, to delete a Facebook account you must follow the following steps:

1º Enter configuration

In the upper right, you must enter the options drop-down and look for the ” Settings ” option.

Click on it to enter the corresponding menu.

This is the penultimate option, as you can see in the previous image.

2º Delete from “Your Facebook information”

In this 3rd option on the left sidebar, we are allowed to delete the information and the account, all in one step.

I will take José’s account as an example (which I also help him manage), here I will use the option called “your information”, in which you can, in one go, permanently delete a Facebook account and all the information from that profile.

3º Deactivate your account if you are not sure you want to delete it

The network will allow you to deactivate your account for any of the reasons that it itself proposes. Remember that this option is not final and that your data will continue to be stored in the company’s files.

In addition, they will remind you that your friends are going to miss you a lot and that nothing will be the same without your presence.

Deactivate from “General” (first option)

It is the first option in the menu on the left, as I show you in the following image.

Here you must go to the ” Manage account ” option and click on edit, just the option you have on the right.

The company, in this section, offers the possibility of carrying out 3 actions:

• Add an email to inform who will be your ” virtual executor “, to whom you will leave your electronic legacy, in case you die (God forbid).
• Request that your profile be deleted after your death.
• Deactivate: you can also deactivate your account , in case you do not want to delete it permanently, but leave it in a “Stand By” state for a while.

4º Delete a Facebook account permanently

The total elimination is at the click of a button, since only if you are sure that you are not going to use your profile again and stop belonging to it, you can do it from  this link.

Once you click on the blue ” Delete my account ” button, you must enter your password and the corresponding “captcha”.

Said captcha may give you an error on several occasions, but you must continue until you succeed, since it is a very common error on the platform.

If you do not access your account within two weeks, it will be permanently deleted. It would not hurt to do the odd check to attest that the company has complied with your deletion instructions.

How long does Facebook keep your personal data?

This is one of the most frequently asked questions by users who want to never use this social network again.

It is worth noting that if you simply deactivate your account, no other user will be able to access or generate interactions (comments, likes, etc.) with any element of your profile.

In addition, you will not appear in the platform’s search engine when other users search for you.

However, the private conversations that you have had will remain visible so that these interlocutors can consult and access them.

What would happen if my intention is to delete my Facebook permanently?

On the other hand, if your intention is to delete your account forever, once you have expressed your intention to stop belonging to it, it will be deactivated for 14 days .

After that period, the platform will understand that, indeed, you want to delete it and it will be then from when the elimination process will begin.

It is important to mention that if you log in to the application again during these 14 days, the removal order will automatically be cancelled.

Once this process is started, the company will have 90 days to delete all the content that you have shared throughout the period in which you have been active with it.

Important: the recent entry into force of the “RGPD” ( General Data Protection Regulation ) will help you achieve your goal more efficiently, since any company will be fined if they continue to keep your data, despite having expressed your intention to unsubscribe from it.

Don’t make decisions lightly!

Before deleting a Facebook account permanently, analyze very well if it is what you really want to do.

Although you have learned how to delete your own profile through this step-by-step tutorial, there are dozens of reasons not to do it, so you should think twice before following this step-by-step.

Whether it is to dedicate yourself to the profession of Community Manager or to complement the strategy of your own online business, I recommend that you train well and learn to use them in a more professional way.

And despite the fact that a large number of people choose to delete their accounts on social networks for personal reasons, do not forget that these platforms are also a powerful corporate communication tool .

Why might Facebook delete or block your account?

As we promised you at the beginning of this article, although the most usual case is that you voluntarily want to stop belonging to this platform, you can also find the opposite situation.

In other words, the network itself proceeds to block or delete your profile. This will only happen if they think you have violated some of their usage and good behavior policies.

These are, therefore, some of the reasons why Facebook can block or delete your account from its database:

► If your age is not in the allowed range

Despite the fact that the vast majority of Internet users who intend to join this network are between the ages of 13 and 99 , their registration options do not include, for example, registering if you are 12 years of age or younger.

This leads many young people to lie when opening a profile. If after a while, they discover that your age is certainly not in that interval, they could ban you from the platform.

► Breastfeeding your child in a “visibly explicit” way

Although it may seem unbelievable in the 21st century, if you are a woman who wants to show your contacts your happiness at having given birth to your child, you must be careful not to appear in photos breastfeeding your baby .

In case the large part of the chest does not appear explicitly in the image, in theory you will not be violating any terms.

But, if this part of your body appears clearly in the photo (or they think it does), the platform indicates that you will be banned from publications… and the repetition of this behavior, a cause of blocking.

► Do not post content of a sexual or racist nature

Publishing content that they perceive as highly sexual or racist in nature is totally prohibited by Zuckerberg’s company and is cause for account blocking.

In this case, I agree, but please do not confuse this type of content with that of the previous point.

► Avoid joining too many groups in a short time

Here comes the reason why, for the most part, the platform could act: the behavior of the «Spammer».

And it is that, in situations where they verify that you have joined hundreds of groups in the same day, it will be a behavior crossed out as spam, since it could indicate that we are dealing with an automated robot, instead of a person.

► Make too many friends in the same day

Like the previous reason, another behavior suspected of being spam is sending too many friend requests to other personal profiles in a very short period of time.

If you have just registered on the platform, try to take it easy and grow your community of contacts little by little.

► Send the same text via DM to a large number of contacts

In case you want to announce your message to a large number of people, it is best to create a thematic group where you publish a post, so that all its members can read it.

Otherwise, sending the same text to a large number of people by direct message, the social network could also consider as a spam action not allowed.

► If your name is “Mark Zuckerberg” you will be in the spotlight

Although its terms do not expressly state that calling yourself after its founder is grounds for removal from the platform, if you have the good (or bad) luck of being named after him, you may be asked to identify yourself as such.

Throughout these years, there have been some specific cases in which, by chance, a user has been called in this way and they have been asked to prove their identity , since for a time there was a wave of false profiles with this name and surnames.

► Being reported by other users

If other people who use the platform complain about your behavior, your comments or the content you share, you have all the numbers to have your profile temporarily blocked or, even worse, permanently deleted due to receiving many complaints.

► Avoid posting copyrighted or offensive content

Finally, content protected by copyright and/or that is denounced by other users will also be more than enough reason to ban you.

You must pay attention to what premises you must comply with when publishing content that is owned by others.

Likewise, you will not be able to insult, vex or, in general, upload images or other content that violates the integrity of other people , it will also be punished, at least, with your removal from Facebook.

Why might I want to delete a Facebook account?

This, despite being one of the most used social networks by the majority of Internet users, does not seem to convince everyone.

Precisely this and other reasons that we will see below, are what can lead us to want to stop having a profile in it, which can be seen by the whole world.

Next, I will break down the reasons that may lead us to want to delete it permanently:

► Job search

Although it is not a very objective selection criterion, everyone knows that human resources managers visit the candidates’ social networks to try to find out what they are like in their private lives.

It seems logical to think that, even if you have a brilliant Curriculum Vitae, if you have a profile with inappropriate images, they stop seeing you as the ideal person to fill the position.

► For the loss of time

Although it is something that is used when you feel like it, on many occasions we waste precious time looking at the updates of our contacts.

In fact, there are people who spend more than 4 hours a day looking at your profile. Gaining that time to do something more productive can be a good way to redirect your life towards productivity.

► Due to lack of use

Although the network admits users of all ages, other more specific ones have been emerging for each age segment. Perhaps you prefer a more visual network that does not interfere so much in the private life of users.

Or, directly, you hardly use it and you have chosen to erase from your life what had been a heavy ballast.

► Because of the way you are treated

It may be common for you to report some content or comment against you and for the response to be an aseptic message in which they do not see anything negative in the other user’s reaction.

Likewise, the saturation of advertising on Facebook Ads and the limitations when publishing some content can be enough obstacles to stop trusting this social network.

► For personal problems

A family quarrel, a break with your partner or a bad streak can cause you to want to close this social network and choose other options.

This instability in your life can even reduce your own Personal Brand, in which case it may become the best option.

► To maintain your privacy

While at first it seemed fun to share everything you did, maybe now the situation has changed.

Having understood, for example, that you don’t have to comment on what you’ve had for breakfast, what you’ve eaten and what you’ve had for dinner, among other activities, you stop seeing the point of having a profile.

» You may also be interested in: How to create a Facebook page for companies?

Conclusion

Although it may seem like it, this platform is not free . You, in this case, do not stop being a client of this company, which sells a segmentation of clients to other companies so that they send you advertising.

It seems logical that they try to keep you as long as possible, but you have the right to decide what you want to do with the information you share on the Internet.

Likewise, together with the GDPR (mentioned above), will force the company to clarify how long it will keep your data and what exactly it will do with all of them.

It is up to you to choose if you want to continue on this social network or if you prefer to delete your data and leave it forever.