Amazing for motivation:
“Everyone is unhappy; the only people who are not unhappy are, literally, executives,” an Instagram employee told WIRED”

That is just where we want Meta ;)

Hello,

I'm in the process of DeMetaing and DeGoogling. I wanted to make this "journal" for fun and inspire/help others to start and/or keep going, but also for others to share tips/provide feedback. In doing this myself, it has been helpful to find new posts as Meta/Google keep changing so tips/techniques become outdated quickly; hopefully this can do the same for others. I've had both accounts for about 20 years, so a very big undertaking.

For my accounts, I wasn't sure if I wanted to permanently delete everything or if I wanted to just try and purge as much data as possible. I started by doing that, but at this point, I am almost ready to just permanently delete everything as manually deleting what I don't want is very time consuming. Doing this has probably helped me psychologically get to the place where I can now be OK with deleting the entire account, though.

As of this post, I've been able to delete all my e-mails. I plan to keep the accounts open for a bit as people still use those e-mails to contact me, but going forward I won't use those e-mails for anything new as I have Proton email now. I will then permanently delete them at some point.

So far, I have done the following:

For Google:

1. Exported all data from Google Account - https://takeout.google.com/ . This will export all your emails, photos, Drive contents, etc... so you can keep them all as backup.
2. Replaced Chrome with DuckDuckGo https://duckduckgo.com/ - you can import all your passwords from Chrome here https://duckduckgo.com/duckduckgo-help-pages/sync-and-backup/importing-passwords You can also export/import bookmarks from Chrome to DDG (I forgot how I did this).
3. Downloaded desktop Thunderbird - to store and read your exported e-mails. I used the Add-On process described here https://www.bitrecover.com/blog/import-mbox-to-thunderbird/ this only works if you have an account - I am not sure what happens if you try to use an existing account, but I was able to do this without one by Account Settings > + New Account > using made up credentials (ex. "name@archive.com"). Maybe there's an exact way to do this but I just played around with the settings until it let me proceed. I don't know if this method is secure/safe.
4. Organize photos - after downloading all Google photos, I went back in and deleted a bunch (easy to do since I knew they were backed up). I re-exported the remaining photos and uploaded them to Proton Drive for storage as I knew I wanted to double back them up/access them in the future.
5. Transferred all passwords to Proton Pass for storage/autofill https://proton.me/support/pass-import-chrome
6. Delete all e-mails - after exporting, you can delete everything in bulk. I recommend setting your inbox so everything is in one inbox (not divided by Promotions, etc.). Bulk delete https://zapier.com/blog/how-to-mass-delete-emails-gmail/ You can leave your e-mails in the trash for 30 days if you want to be safe.

For Facebook:

1. Export all your data from Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/help/212802592074644 this will include all your comments, likes, and Messenger Inbox (they are HTML version that you can easily read in browser).
2. Deleted all activity - may not be necessary if you are permanently deleting your account, but if you are semi-purging, you can go to My Activity and look at lists of your actions. Open each one and scroll a bunch to expose as many as possible. Click the checkbox at the top to select all. You can delete 250+ actions this way. I haven't found any effective and free Chrome extension that automates this (I've tried 5-6).
3. Deleting DMs - this has been the most challenging/frustrating as there is no way to delete messages in recipient's inbox unless you "Unsend" them, but there's no bulk action. The only Chrome extension I could find that is anywhere near effective is by installing it as an "unpacked extension" (as opposed to adding it through the Chrome Store) https://github.com/theahura/shoot-the-messenger/ An addition/alternative is to search through all your messages with personal information (ex. phone, email, etc.) and deleting those manually. As Meta keeps changing their code, this script may become outdated very soon and the developer cannot keep it operational so use it while you still can.It is not 100% functional as it is very challenging to script due to Meta's continuous scroll and hover-Unsend function, but some tips:
   1. Zoom out to load as many messages as possible
   2. Download Emoji Blocker https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/emoji-blocker/eimknojlmcfpmofldcdiaddfimjchmcj Emojis trip up the script sometimes so this extension simply removes them from chat text

I'll keep editing/updating this post as I continue along this project. Thanks :)

EDIT: after an edit, lists disappeared, so I've re-typed it all back in

New York Times Guest Essay Opinion
Copy of this post in our Lemmy community: https://lemmy.world/post/46656969

For 4 months. Worst company in the fucking world. I could not be more ecstatic to be as far away from that place as possible.

​

I am not exaggerating. I have fallen into severe depression. My Instagram account was suspended by the AI system, even though I did not violate any of the company's policies.

This account is one of the most valuable things I have. I have tried every possible solution, but I have not been able to recover it. The problem is that this account is a part of me, and I do not know how to get it back.

I need a Meta employee who can personally review my account, confirm that there were no policy violations, and restore it for me.

So, i'm going trough the degoogling process, and i want to wrap up microsoft and meta into the removal process. However, where i live (Brazil) whatsapp is essencial, all other messaging services would require everyone i know, may that be family, freinds or any other person you can think of to switch. Is there any fork or patch to whatsapp i can use?

Instagram and Facebook just don’t feel fun anymore. Every click somehow turns into targeted ads, spam calls, or another reminder that my data is floating around everywhere So this week I started backing everything up. Photos, messages, old posts, everything. After that I’m deleting as much as I can from both platforms.

What really pushed me over the edge was checking data broker sites and seeing how much of my info is publicly floating around. Old numbers, addresses, emails, family info, all of it (highly suspect facebook being the culprit here). Been using a mix of tools to clean things up and regain some privacy. Exporting my data directly from Meta, switching a lot of accounts to aliases, and using Cloaked to start removing my info from broker sites because doing those opt outs manually is miserable.

Feel better already, never going back to it.

I've been degoogling. Last week I deleted my Microsoft and Google account. Tonight I deleted my LinkedIn, Pinterest, FB, and IG. All I have left is Samsung and Discord aside from reddit. I'll probably keep these three. I rarely use Discord and I have SoFi bank account linked with Samsung. But we'll see I suppose. I appreciate this sub since it helped motivate me to take this step.