Facebook Will Harass You Mercilessly If You Try To Break Up (slate.com)

schwit1 shares a summary from PJ Media: Breaking up with Facebook is apparently as difficult as breaking up with a bad boyfriend or girlfriend who won't accept your decision. That's the experience Henry Grabar of Slate had when he stopped signing on. He stopped logging in on June 6 and stayed off Facebook for ten days. He had been a member for over ten years and this was the longest period he had remained off the social network. But Facebook didn't leave him alone. He received 17 email messages in a span of nine days urging him to return.

Grabar is not alone in trying to wean himself off Facebook for various reasons. Some do it because they realize it can be a waste of time, while others do it because of the company's inability to protect (or lack of interest in protecting) its members' personal data. The company has mistakenly released data of millions of its members and friends of members to third parties, and many of them have used the data for illicit purposes. While Facebook says they are not losing members, some recent statistics paint a different story. According to a Pew study, only 51 percent of U.S. teenagers use the service now, down from 71 percent in 2015. This was the first time the numbers have fallen. The frequent messages reinforced Grabar's decision to stay off the platform. Some of the messages included photo updates from his friends; liked posts from groups he belonged to; and comments about a news article that was posted to a group he belonged to.

Comments

Just create a spam email address

[Anonymous Coward]

How hard is it? Change to a spam email address before breaking up with a service

Re:Just create a spam email address

[scsirob]

That's what I do all the time. Got my own domain, with a few email accounts but unlimited alias ability.

Whenever I must register for something with company-x, I create an email alias 'company-x@myowndomain.com'. If company-x gets breached, sells my data or simply starts spamming me, I can now stop emails coming in whenever I want by removing the alias.

Re:Just create a spam email address

[default luser]

Or you could just simplify your life and create auto-sort filters. I created a Facebook folder in my Hotmail account years ago, and I've just forgotten that it's there.

No control freak domain ownership required :)

Re:Just create a spam email address

[johnsie]

His method makes more sense than just filters. With a catch-all address you can still have the filters, but more importantly you can see which company a third party company got your email address from.

Re:Just create a spam email address

[Anonymous Coward]

you can see which company a third party company got your email address from.

And then, upon know who leaked your info you do what? Call them and complain? Take them to court? Yeah, right.

The additional work doesn't amount to any tangible benefit. Just filtering works the same but with less hassle.

Mistakenly?

[Anonymous Coward]

No. Facebook is in the business of selling my/your information. No mistake at all.

Um

[meglon]

Isn't there a setting where you can get update emails to those things? Cause, turning it off might be a way to stop those emails. Just saying.

I had a facebook account for like 2 weeks to keep up with a specific event. Deleted the account afterwards, and i haven't had an email from them since.

This is highly misleading.

[ScentCone]

Choosing not to sign in to a platform you've been steadily using, where you are a member of active groups and have friends (that you follow) who post content ... and then getting updates from that platform telling you the sorts of things that are going on with your contacts/interests - that's NOT "trying to break up." Closing your account is "breaking up." Do that, and you'll stop hearing from FB in short order. Playing coy by keeping your account active and your connections established while not visiting for a week and half - sounds like he experienced exactly what one would expect.