---
title: "Bye bye Facebook"
description: "After Cambridge Analytica exposed Facebook's data practices, I deleted my account. Their core business model is the problem."
date: "2018-03-19T00:00:00.000Z"
canonical: "https://www.antonsten.com/articles/bye-bye-facebook/"
---

> Both [the Times](https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/17/us/politics/cambridge-analytica-trump-campaign.html) and [the Guardian](https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/mar/17/cambridge-analytica-facebook-influence-us-election) describe this as a _“data breach”_, but I don’t think that’s entirely descriptive of what went on here. When I hear _“data breach”_, I think that a password got stolen or a system was hacked into. But Facebook VP Andrew Bosworth tweeted that there was nothing that was stolen — users willingly gave their information to an app, which went behind their backs to use the information in a somewhat sketchy way that users did not expect.
>
> Facebook is more than happy to collect the world’s information, but it is clear to me that they have no intention for taking full responsibility for what that entails.
>
> — [Fifty Million Facebook Profiles Harvested for Cambridge Analytica](https://pxlnv.com/linklog/cambridge-analytica-facebook/)

> The data that Facebook leaked to Cambridge Analytica is the same data Facebook retains on everyone and sells targeting services around. The problem is not shady Russian researchers; it’s Facebook’s core business model of _collect, store, analyze, exploit_.
>
> — [Maciej Cegłowski](https://twitter.com/Pinboard/status/975013825010458624)

I just deleted my Facebook account. I've never been particularly opinionated about privacy but I can't continue supporting [their business model](https://www.antonsten.com/omfacebook).