Facebook账号想删就能删？ 其实没那么容易

过去几周，一系列有关助选公司Cambridge Analytica滥用Facebook用户数据的内幕曝光，广大用户删除Facebook账户的呼声不绝于耳。删除Facebook运动支持者之中还出现名人，包括WhatsApp联合创始人布莱恩·阿克顿和特斯拉首席执行官埃隆·马斯克。

现在用户为了保护个人数据而离开Facebook，可能迫使Facebook改变处理用户数据的方式。Facebook研究人员也发现，减少使用社交媒体可能有益心理健康。但真正要删除Facebook的账号并不容易，还是有点麻烦的，而且用户最终可能发觉自己比想象中要依赖Facebook。

在删除Facebook账号攻略的网站DeleteFacebook.com有各种删号指导，很简单的方案来自英国开发者爱德华·坎特。过程看起来很简单，登入Facebook账号的删除页面，然后点击删除按键。

但实际情况要复杂一些。删除以前你可能想先下载数据，从Facebook上下载数据相当方便。另一个麻烦就是之前分享过的数据，例如发送的短信息会一直保留，除非接收信息的用户手动删除。

最棘手的问题则是，提交删除账号申请两周后才能真正永久删除。DeleteFacebook.com就提到了多种可能重置账号的“勾引激活花招”，包括用Facebook登录第三方应用或者网站，或者使用其他程序以你的身份在Facebook发帖。这意味着，正式删除以前你还得撤销此前给各种第三方应用的授权。

等到浏览一长串需要撤销授权的应用时，你可能才会意识到隐私受到多大影响。从众筹平台Kickstarter到在线存储服务商Dropbox，很多大零售商、服务供应商和平台都鼓励用户用Facebook的账号直接登陆。多年来，这成为验证网络身份这个棘手问题的有效方法，也是Facebook很精明的一步，Facebook由此将用户锁定在范围更广大的生态系统里。对许多用户来说，“删除Facebook”也意味着日常爱用的服务都得重新设定登陆方式。

所以过不了多久，删除Facebook就会变得像电影《教父》系列主角之一迈克尔·柯里昂想脱离黑帮一样——你刚以为离开，却发现就被拽了回去。有些人会认为删除账号过程的各种折腾和麻烦很值得，但另一些人可能觉得只要以后加紧隐私保护就可以了。

对一些感到担忧的美国人而言，还有个略显极端的选择：转战欧洲。今年5月，一项全面保障数据权利的法律——《一般数据保护条例》将在欧盟地区生效。虽然目前该法律的实际效果还很难说，但其目的是避免用户的个人数据遭到滥用。毕竟，不少用户真是受够了马克·扎克伯格的Facebook。（财富中文网）

译者：Feb

The past week’s series of revelations about the misuse of Facebook user data by the election firm Cambridge Analytica has led to widespread calls for users to delete their accounts. Prominent supporters of deleting Facebook now include WhatsApp co-founder Brian Acton and Tesla CEO Elon Musk.

Individuals leaving Facebook are protecting their own data, and could pressure the company into reforming the way it handles everyone else’s. According to Facebook’s own researchers, less social media could also be good for your mental health. But the process of truly deleting an account is at least a little tricky – and along the way, you might find out you were more dependent on Facebook than you thought.

One of the best guides to deleting an account can be found at DeleteFacebook.com, created by a U.K. developer named Edward Cant. On its face, the process seems simple – go to Facebook’s account deletion page and press one button.

But there’s a bit more to it than that. Before deleting, you probably want to download your data, including photos and messages, which Facebook makes fairly simple. Another hitch is that shared data, such as messages, will remain accessible by other users unless they delete it on their end.

The biggest catch, though, is that your account deletion won’t be permanent for two weeks after you start the process. DeleteFacebook.com describes a number of “reactivation traps” that reset that counter, including logging in via Facebook to any third-party apps or websites, or using any programs that post to Facebook on your behalf. That means you probably want to to revoke permissions for those apps before starting your deletion.

Going through the list of apps might be the moment when you realize just how much you’ve bitten off. Many major retailers, services, and platforms, from Kickstarter to Dropbox, encourage users to log in with their Facebook credentials. For years, that has been a useful solution to the thorny problem of online identity – and a canny strategy for Facebook to lock users in to its broader ecosystem. For many users, “deleting Facebook” will also require creating new logins for their favorite services.

So before long, leaving Facebook starts to feel like Michael Corleone’s attempt to leave the mafia – just when you think you’re out, they pull you back in. For some, the effort and hassle will be worth it, while others may settle for clamping down their privacy settings.

There is one other, admittedly extreme approach for worried Americans – move to Europe. A comprehensive data rights law known as the General Data Protection Regulation goes into effect there later this year. Though the law’s real impacts are hard to predict, it’s designed to protect users from just the sort of abuse that has so many fed up with Mark Zuckerberg’s brainchild.