what privacy settings?

I'd deleted my Facebook account again yesterday, it's maybe the 433th time I'm doing it. I always do it for privacy issues. Not related to Fb, but more to my basic distrust of social networking sites, where more information than you'd care to give out actually gets given out, always. So my ex-boyfriend will frikkin' know every time I blink, even if I privatise my settings to the max.

Likely imaginary conversation:

Random friend: "Yo, so what's up?"

Ex-boyfriend: "Heh, N went rafting. I saw the photos on fb."

And the pictures weren't even put up by me. I was Just. Tagged.

And you know the funny thing? You can't delete your Fb account; you have to deactivate it. Which means Fb still has all the information that you, and your friends, have put up on your account. Whether you like it or not.

So, when I read this today, I felt good about having deactivated my account. But, hey, they still have all my pictures, all my information, my detailed friends list, the conversations I've had with them, everything.

Ok, at some point you have to let go and trust people. Like you trust your bank. But your relationship with the bank is not happening in front of 200 friends (yeah, that's all I have), and their friends, the friends' friends' friends...ad infinitum.

So why don't you delete people from your list, dumbass?

Because then I'll have to explain why. Maybe not to them, but to a common friend. I'll just delete myself, thank you. Oh, deactivate, sorry. Heck, I've to even explain to Fb when I want out.

So, yeah...it's too much for me.

But there's so much of me out there already...without my consent.

ETA: Muahahaha. How to delete your Fb account. The way Fb has "hidden" the delete option under truckloads of legalspeake in their ToS reminds me of a slimy creature slinking away after having stolen my sandwich...

For some reason...