Before we start, I want to stress that I deleted my facebook account since 2015 (almost 10 years now). Deleted = find the the delete account page, agree to delete and do not log back in. In 2012, I tried to delete but ended up logging back in due to addiction. Before I deleted, I switched the email I was using to some temp email.

Also, this is not some story I pulled out of my ass to get upvotes here on on reddit, r/nosleep. It is true and it shows how fucked up and how deep our privacy is being violated.

Anyway, as this is about privacy, here are somethings that are very disturbing:

1. Back in 2015 (months after the account was “officially deleted”), while browsing the web with a different browser but the same computer and same network, I got ads on the side from facebook showing “My Account Name and 100 like this”. It even retained the profile pic I used before deleted.

2. This one is tricky, I’m not sure if I’m paranoid but it scares the shit out of me. Months ago, my family wanted to check out the menu items of a local restaurant before going there. The menu was posted on facebook and half of it is covered unless you log in.

Nobody in my family uses facebook. Nothing on phones or computers.

So we decide to create a fake account with a fake name using a temporary email. This is before the identity validation bullshit. We log on using a burner computer at a different wifi. After viewing the menu, we scrolled down a bit.

Remember, this is a blank account: no friends, no pages, no likes…etc. So there was nothing on the news feed. We clicked on some local posts, liked some others just to get the newsfeed populate.

This time we can see posts on the feed. As we scrolled down, we saw posts from this news sites and from local celebrities, game ads…etc. There was this random post. Underneath, it showed “A B C and 100 like this”.

The problem? A B C is my actual last name, middle and first name !

I have never ever used A B C on any facebook accounts. Nick name, yes so like: Z C. But never A B C. In the messages of the deleted account, sometimes I use A like when a friend talk to you using your name: hey sup A. The middle B i never use.