Online Sense is ICDL Arabia's philanthropic arm aimed at raising public awareness on Cyber Safety.

A survey conducted recently in the United States and Germany showed that for the first time in the history of Facebook, the largest number of people have come forward to say that they are losing trust in Facebook over privacy.

According to a poll conducted by Reuters/Ipsos, nearly half of the Americans feel Facebook is not likely to obey privacy laws in the country, and a survey conducted by Bild am Sonntag, a leading newspaper in Germany found that 60 percent of Germans fear Facebook and other social networks are negatively impacting democracy.

Such strong reactions against Facebook come after recent revelations that an US-based research company ‘extracted’ the private information of more than 50 million Facebook in 2014. This information was sold to Cambridge Analytica, a company that reportedly used it during the pre-election campaign of US President Donald Trump.

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Sounds like the story of a sensational Hollywood movie? If you are following the #DeleteFacebook trend on websites like Twitter, you will understand how big an issue this has become. Even celebrities such as Elon Musk, founder of SpaceX and Tesla, and Brian Acton, co-founder of WhatsApp have asked Facebook users to delete their accounts.

While you can delete Facebook by simply clicking a button, it’s not as easy it sounds. Did you know that there is a website, which guides on how to delete Facebook?

In case you are really paranoid that your personal data is no longer safe with Facebook, and want to part with your beloved social media site, be aware of the following:

  • Don’t forget to download your data, including photos and messages
  • Shared data, such as messages, will remain accessible by other users unless they delete it on their end
  • Remember that your account deletion won’t be permanent for two weeks after you start the process
  • You must evoke permissions for all apps that use Facebook before starting your deletion. Deleting Facebook will mean you have to create new logins for your favourite services that have used your Facebook data to register you on their site

For other tricky points you need to consider before deleting your Facebook account, we recommend you thoroughly research this online before taking the leap.