Why I keep Facebook
The obvious solution is to just delete Facebook if you value privacy, but I would instantly lose contact with friends I have met all over the world and family that refuse to leave the platform. Another factor is shadow profiles even if I were to remove my account they will most likely retain old information and receive all the information my friends continue to upload about me. Keeping my profile makes sense for me but I want to avoid giving up more data than I need to at the same time.
Mobile: Delete the apps
- Whatsapp (Replace with Signal if you need a new platform)
- Messenger
- Instagram
All of the apps listed continue to feed your location, contacts, IP and who knows what other metadata back to Facebook. Having one is almost as damaging as having them all.
Mobile: The setup
This is fairly easy to do however will require slightly more effort than the regular app.
- IOS
-Download a Tor based browser - Android
-Download Tinfoil for Facebook
-Download a Tor based browser - Navigate to mbasic.facebookcorewwwi.onion
-This stripes the site of all Javascript they cannot even tell if you look at a post unless you interact with it.
WARNING: Only use this browser for Facebook do not navigate to any other sites.
Clear cookies and cache in your other browsers to mitigate meta data leakage.
Desktop setup
- Clear your browsers cookies and cache and install an addon such as Ublock Orgin or DuckDuckGo to block social media scripts.
- Download the Tor Browser: https://www.torproject.org/
- Navigate to www.facebookcorewwwi.onion
- Go to settings and logout of all other devices.
Congratulations
If you have done everything correctly Facebook should not be able to see any IP information, location, or even what type of device you are using to access Facebook, while you still retain almost all the functionality you had before.