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Cleaning out past history
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So I had a bit of a wtf moment when I realised just how *much* history is stored on these social media platforms. I mean, I always knew, but it wasn't until I went in to do a bit of a clean out of past posts and the like and I realised how nearly impossible it is. Particularly, the widespread practice of all social media companies to retain all private chats forever with no way of wiping these. Naturally over the years, as diligent as I try to be, material and conversations have been exchanged that several years later, I would rather not be recorded forever. And the same for others too.
I have tried to use the Secret Chat feature with message time-out where I can but most people either can't be bothered and keep using the normal chat, or even, strangely, get freaked out by it (but not by having their private conversation recorded forever, go figure).
Also with past posts. I have found plugins to wipe past posts (and even likes) but this takes a while. It can be done at least which is great, but boy it takes a while and is hard. So I was thinking of just wiping all past posts, likes, comments etc as a general precaution and clean out.
But that still leaves private chats and I am not comfortable with that.
The main ones I can concerned about are Facebook, and LinkedIn. With Instagram also to a degree.
Is the only way to clear out one's past (in particular chats) to wipe one's accounts and start again?
This would be a pain as after all this time I have substantial networks and social media capital that I would rather not lose, but I figure these companies literally bank on people feeling this way because it discourages account deletion and perpetuates the ongoing surveillance and data collection.
If the only option is the Big Nuke and start again - is there any best practice or effort-reducing ways of doing this? I.e. maybe I could export my contacts and friends lists but on Facebook alone I have several thousand. There is no way I could manually carry each over one by one. Although a clean out of some would be a good but still, that would take forever and Facebook would probably flag me for spam or soliciting for suddenly 'friending' a large group of people from the start.
So... what options do I have?
I really do not want my deep past history there forever and from now on I will refuse to use Facebook for anything private, even family, and insist on using Telegram only (with the message burnout).
It does strike me as odd that if I were to place a audio recorder on a table in the middle of a private conversation, people would object. Yet nearly no-one blinks an eye about private social media chats that are recorded forever, and provably harvested, analysed and sold off.
So I want a clean break from all this crap. If I have to nuke my accounts and start again then so be it. I'm over all this manipulation and surveillance anyway. But what a pain that will be (which they have deliberately made to be I am sure).
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July 02, 2019 at 02:00AM