I posted this on the facebook lemmy, but I guess there’s no one there. So maybe I can get help here.
Where I live (Australia), specially in smaller towns, facebook is a requirement. Gumtree is dead, so any second hand products, room rental and even jobs are done only through facebook.
I tried a few times creating a fake account but quickly they lock my account, even if I don’t use it. I’m not sure how they know my data is fake, but I’d rather smash my face on the wall than giving zuckeberg any personal info.
Is there any way? Any specific things I need to look for when creating an account? I tried using believable names and email, but no luck…
This is hard for me. I absolutely hate facebook and I want it to die. But I have to accept that I’m surrounded by people who don’t care if they are ####### over by an american billionaire, and I have to conform if I want to interact with them. So any help is appreciated.
More specifically, I wanted to find second hand objects, jobs and maybe rent a room. All of which seems to be a facebook only thing, unfortunately.
Also, is there like a proxy website where I can do that without going to the actual facebook? Like youtube, instagram and others have websites like this. But when I search for “facebook proxy” I only find people so desperate to use it that they want to circumvent work or school networks that block it.
Edit: following recommendations, I made an account with a burner number I had here (I have a few usually just in case). I’ll update if that still gets me banned. Thanks for all replies!
I feel your pain. I too am considering creating an account simply because it is needed for work and family stuff.
Here you can have a messenger account without having facebook but even that seem to be performing badly, because i dont have facebook. People have trouble finding me and I can’t always join group chats.
I have considered using an old phone just for Facebook and getting an extra phone number to verify the account with. Then only use Facebook through that device and leave it at home. Maybe I’ll have to give Facebook my info but can as well prohibit then from tracking me
Here the government requires full privacy breach for buying a sim (because, of course, the terrorists and stuff). That with the inevitable hack that happens from time to time on telcoms it’s just a matter of time of them spreading all the details the telcom have on me.
I think things will have to get worse for me to consider that option. But I am thinking about it. Still… there’s no guarantee they won’t block me since I won’t use my real name or have any “friends” on it. I think if your account will clearly not give them money, they will block it.
Yeah, this is one of the companies that I trust to be doing shady stuff. Especially after the Pay or Ok move they did for 1½ year ago, forcing people to either pay a crazy subscription fee to avoid targeted ads, (for me it was close to €30 a month), or accept them. before that, you could opt out of targeted ads (but not tracking).
That said, even when paying a subscription, they would still track you, and still run suggested content, even from commercial accounts.
I am happy to pay for useful services to companies I trust, and facebook is possibly the last one on the list. Even if they told me they don’t track me I wouldn’t believe. Not they would be even allowed not to, being an american company…
I have filed a GDPR complaint about Facebook with my local data authority, because Facebook deleted my account, but still send me newsletters suggesting people to follow. I filed it January 2024 and only after 10 months did the complain get forwarded to Ireland who, because of some new rule, now has to handle the complaint. It will take for ever, but i don’t really care
Here in the united states of the south privacy laws are foreign concepts. But even if we had laws I wouldn’t trust it. What’s stopping them from making a backup of the data, deleting from the main server and saying “there, I did it”?
To me once the company gets your info, you lost it. But to still receive spam is a problem. I had the same issue with companies here. I would like to at least be removed from their spam list.
The EU have made laws regarding the right to be forgotten. If the companies breach this, they face huge fines, as a percentage of their overall earnings. That said, I am loosing faith in how often they get enforced and how easily you can complain to the authorities about it.
Also, i am in doubt of how much data they can actually maintain, while anonymizing it. So they may keep your data, but remove any personal link to you as a person.
Specially with servers in the US I wouldn’t be too hopeful about it. Or at all.
But even if the server is in europe, if I were facebook I would certainly keep a room of backups labeled something else just in case. Unlikely fines in the present and possibly massive profit in the future for whatever reason. Why not? The thing is that no one should expect that info uploaded to the internet can be ever really deleted. There should be campaigns to make people more aware of that. As in “we made these laws to protect you, but the only real protection comes from you”.