Facebook exempt from rules?

[labboypro]

I'm not trying to start a bashing thread... but as a relative outsider to the anti-spam/security world, I am perplexed at why Facebook appears to be exempt from the common practice (and I'm guessing there are some RFC's on the matter as well) of accepting spam reports.

As many of you know, once you've got a Facebook account, you can't make it go away no matter what you do... even if you have congressional approval or a papal bull in hand. They let you "close" the account, but it's not actually closed in any sense of the word-- people can still see your account, they can still find you in FB's search, and FB still sends a relentless stream of "information" emails to remind me of all the things I'm "missing." If you log in to "RE-close" your account, it actually seems to increase the spam messages. Writing them via various communication channels has no effect. And the emails keep coming.

But worse... at least in the SC interface I have available to me, I can't even REPORT the spam as spam (which I think is reasonably defined as "unsolicited email." And I can't unsubscribe as defined in the federal CAN spam Act, which codifies the legal requirement to (among other things)-- Tell recipients how to opt out of receiving future email from you, and then honor opt-out requests promptly.

Why are they apparently exempt from decent Internet behavior and from federal regulations???

Or... what am I missing?

[turetzsr]

Hi, labboypro,

...That would seem to be a very good question to address to your members of the US Congress (assuming you are a US citizen). My guess would be that the communications you are receiving are not considered to be "commercial content," since they are not trying to sell anything?

[Geek]

Lotsa luck on that one. Our Privacy Commissioner (Canada) has been trying to get FB to follow the rules for years, to no avail.

They're the biggest source of info the NSA and other agencies has ever seen and can pretty much get away with anything.

[Farelf]

Interesting ... have you jumped through all the hoops? That is, re-establish the account then go to the "permanent deletion" form (to access which you need your valid password).

How do I permanently delete my account? (Desktop Help)

Alternative instructions for iPad, iPhone, Mobile Browser, etc. from the link in the above. They really are supposed to honour "permanent deletion". Don't know what to do if they don't but they used to ... I closed my account once. Then re-opened it due to "social pressure" but don't recall getting spammed at all in the interim period. Similar story with Linkedin except that was a little harder IIRC. And yes, I eventually rejoined that too. (This) man needs his head read, but that's another story.

[labboypro]

Interesting ... have you jumped through all the hoops? That is, re-establish the account then go to the "permanent deletion" form (to access which you need your valid password).

How do I permanently delete my account? (Desktop Help)

Alternative instructions for iPad, iPhone, Mobile Browser, etc. from the link in the above. They really are supposed to honour "permanent deletion". Don't know what to do if they don't but they used to ... I closed my account once. Then re-opened it due to "social pressure" but don't recall getting spammed at all in the interim period. Similar story with Linkedin except that was a little harder IIRC. And yes, I eventually rejoined that too. (This) man needs his head read, but that's another story.

I may give your linked instructions a try... but I'm a little gun-shy since past attempts have resulted in more traffic (kind of like replying to a typical spammer... now he knows he's got a valid email address to hit). I'm not sure when the instructions you linked came to be. My last attempt to kill off my account was in 2010, and I've had... and I'll try not to sound like I'm exaggerating... ~ 100 emails from them since. I archive my SpamCop sent reports folder in Outlook regularly to keep my folder size down... so I can only easily see 1 week of SpamCop reports sent. A quick and dirty search for "facebook.com" nets _3_ spame emails I reported during that time. Assuming 3x/week, that "~ 100" might be as high as 450 over the last 3 years. That is scandalous amount of spam from one sender.

As for social pressure. Stand firm!

I haven't tried to kill my LinkedIn account... but I use it ONLY for legitimate professional purposes... no matter how hard they try to lasso me into the 21st century tell-all gabfest that is social media. Having said that, LinkedIn is not exactly ethical in their behavior either.

*sigh*

[Farelf]

I may give your linked instructions a try... but I'm a little gun-shy since past attempts have resulted in more traffic (kind of like replying to a typical spammer... now he knows he's got a valid email address to hit). ...

Well, another/additional approach which I've just initiated on my own Facebook account (the account needs to be re-activated if it is not already active) is to add another e-mail address - make it a free/disposable e-mail account (have to confirm from your primary address) - then make that your primary address and delete your previous primary address. That should ensure no more "spam" to your good address, no matter what else.

If you get a free Yahoo account, that would maybe be best - Yahoo is fairly famous for accepting all addresses in the "RCPT TO:" SMTP session ("catch all" even for invalid addresses) so no-one knows in advance if it is still a valid address or not. But it certainly will need to be a valid address if you want to then go ahead and "permanently delete" the Facebook account (or make any other changes to the account). Any of which you can (presumably) safely do because your original e-mail address is no longer active on the Facebook account and even if you pick up "spam" on the new address following permanent deletion of the Facebook account you can ignore it or mark it as spam for Yahoo "training" or even abandon the address.