Facebook is going though hard times these days following the latest revelations that users’ data was collected without their consent and used during Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, and more and more people across the world decide to delete their accounts in sign of protest and due to concerns of privacy violations.
While having an account on Facebook pretty much means that privacy is a thing of the past (though some experts believe this is exactly what happens once you decide to go online), deleting an account is just not enough to block the social network.
Also, it takes up to 90 days to have your account deleted, logging back in during this whole time cancels the process and also, it's nearly impossible to reach the delete account option without searching the Internet first.
Because yes, deleting your account does enough harm to the service because its userbase is shrinking, but on the other hand, Facebook will continue to track you even if you’re not logged in. And it does this through the millions of websites out there where its features are embedded, such as those small like buttons that are pretty much everywhere these days.
Deleting an account on Facebook
So if you want to completely block Facebook once and for all, it takes more than simply deleting your account. And a group of GitHub users knows exactly how to do it.
Basically, completely blocking Facebook means all of its URLs need to be blocked as well, not only on the social network itself, but also across the rest of the Internet. Fortunately, doing this on the existing desktop operating system is not at all difficult, though additional steps are required for mobile devices – on iPhone, however, this is impossible due to Apple’s restrictions. Unless the device is jailbroken, of course.
On PCs, adding all URLs to the block list can be done either with a firewall, which lets you configure rules for certain links, or with the HOSTS file in Windows, Linux, and macOS. Below, you can find the details to edit the HOSTS file on Windows, though a similar procedure can be used for Linux and macOS as well.
For Windows, the HOSTS file can be found in the following folder (note that an administrator account is needed to make changes):
Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7- C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\hosts
Windows 2000 - C:\WINNT\system32\drivers\etc\hosts
Windows 98/ME - C:\WINDOWS\hosts
On Linux, and macOS, the HOSTS file is available in the location below, again with administrator rights required to make changes:
/etc/hosts
On Windows, the easiest way to edit the HOSTS file is to launch Notepad or WordPad with administrator rights and then navigate to the path mentioned above manually. To do this, click the Start menu, type notepad or wordpad, right-click the result and click Run as administrator. Click Yes in the UAC prompt and then head over to File > Open and navigate to the Windows path above. If the file isn’t there, you can simply create it manually.
Launching WordPad with administrator privileges
Once you open the HOSTS file, copy the URLs that are available in the box after the jump and paste all of them in the file. Save it, relaunch your browsers (or reboot the system) and you’re good to go.
The same thing for Linux and macOS – just copy the content in the box below and paste it in the HOSTS file.
This method basically blocks all Facebook URLs as system level, which means that regardless of the browser that you use no matter on what operating system, Facebook links would no longer load. This is particularly important to have in mind, because should you ever want to regain Facebook access, you have to edit the HOSTS file once again to remove the new entries.
Also, if you’re afraid that something could go wrong, make sure that you create a backup of the original HOSTS file before anything else. This allows you to return to the previous configuration at any moment by simply following the steps above and pasting the default content of the HOSTS file.
Topic: How to Completely Delete And Block Your Facebook Account All Over the Internet (Read 3003 times)
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April 11, 2018, 12:22:28 AM