Reply to post: Not an FB user. Can I delete my personal data?

Fleeing Facebook app users realise what they agreed to in apps years ago – total slurpage

PickledAardvark

Not an FB user. Can I delete my personal data?

I read about Facebook when it was launched in the UK and declined to join. I have never given FB any of my personal data by participation with the Facebook platform. Owing to the way that FB sucks up data about my family and friends, however, FB possesses a "shadow profile" of me.

Can I delete that "shadow profile"? It seems a Schrodinger's Cat problem to me. I don't want FB to possess data about me, but the only way to request its deletion is to contact FB, thus exposing my personal information and validating inferred data. Can I delete my data without giving FB better data than they already possess?

If my "shadow profile" is deleted (let's say that somebody accidentally erases me), will Facebook create a new "shadow profile" of me?

I'm puzzled. Perhaps Facebook will have to act according to basic personal privacy laws and cease collecting data about people who are not their users.

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