Tutorial Archives — Marius Schober

Facebook: A Stalking Time-Machine

Only a few days ago, a friend of mine sent me an old photo which showed us partying (really hard) at the age of ±17 years. Where did he get it from? Correct, Facebook reminded him of it. I personally don’t really have a problem to share these kinds of photos with people – as long I know them quite good. However, I don’t like the fact that my entire past is recorded on a Facebook timeline, for anyone to access, review, download, and stalk. Let’s not even talk about the big data Facebook is gathering and the personal profile Facebook is constructing out of my activity.

Deleting Your Activity? Not That Easy

Today I sat down and thought: “Well, let me simply delete all of my past Facebook posts, likes, photos, and videos.” However, as it turned out this was easier said than done. It seems that Facebook doesn’t want you to delete all your past activities on the platform. In fact, it is impossible to delete all your activity with a single click. This “Delete Everything Button” does not exist. So, Facebook wants you to click manually on every single activity of you to review and then delete it. Considering that most of us are active users on Facebook for several years, this process apparently will take days. However, there is a fast-track to delete your Facebook history.

Using A Script to Eradicate Vacate Your Timeline

Nobody wants to sit hours and days in front of a PC clicking the same buttons all over again. Fortunately, there is a way how you can automate this process. This works by using a manual script in your browser. I just found a straightforward Chrome extension which will run a script on your Facebook activity log. The script will run for several hours depending on how active you were on Facebook in the past. Several hours are still faster than deleting all activities manually. If you too want to get rid of your Facebook past, follow the following steps.

How To Delete All Your Facebook Activity: Step By Step

1) Turn on your PC or Mac

The steps described below do only work on a PC or Mac. There is no shortcut which you can use on your mobile device or your Facebook app.

2) Use the Google Chrome Browser to Access Facebook

I tried several scripts to delete my Facebook activity. The easiest and most reliable procedure works with Google Chrome. So if you don’t use Google Chrome click here to get it.

3) Log-In to your Facebook Account Using Chrome

The next step – apparently – is to log in to your Facebook account.

4) Download the “Social Book Post Manager” Extension for Chrome

Next, download the necessary extension for Google Chrome. The extension is called “Social Book Post Manager.” Click here to install it in Chrome or open the same link in the Chrome browser you want to use to delete your Facebook activity.

5) Navigate to Your “Activity Log”

Now go to your own Facebook profile and click on the “View Activity Log” button.

6) Click on the Icon of the newly Installed Extension

First, select on the right-hand side of the Facebook activity log which activity you want to delete or hide. For example posts you have posted, posts you were tagged in, photos, videos, etc. You can delete your own posts but you can only hide posts or photos you were tagged in.

Now you select which time frame you would like to delete everything from your activity log. You can choose specific years and or months. If you want to remove everything, select “Select All.”
Check or uncheck the “Prescan on Page” selection however you desire. If you run the script in the background, you probably won’t need a prescan.

To start the script and to DELETE EVERYTHING from your Facebook activity log click on “Delete” or “Hide”.

For better results read the update below.

Facebook Does Not Want Us To Do This

The question which remains is the following: why does Facebook not merely offers a button to delete all of our Facebook activity? Why do they – on purpose – design this process like a pain in the ass?

I leave the question with you. Be aware what you post on Facebook and don’t allow Facebook to become too mighty in your life. Try to implement alternative services into your life. I switched nearly all of my communication to Telegram

I hope this post was helpful for you. If it was, feel free to leave a comment or share it with your loved ones.

Update for better results:

Don’t open any other Facebook window in another browser tab and don’t open any Facebook app on your phone or tablet while running the script.
Deactivate or delete any other Facebook-related Chrome plugins you might have already installed. Other plugins might interfere with “Social Book Post Manager”. To see all your installed plugins visit: chrome://extensions/
If the plugin does not delete everything, please reduce the speed in which the plugin runs. The standard speed is 4x. If the plugin skips too much of your activity, set it to 2x or 1x or even slower. In this case, think about running your PC for one night in the background.
If you have been a heavy Facebook user (myself included) the script might not be 100% accurate. For better results simply run the plugin multiple times.
After my entire activity log and timeline was eradicated (it was empty, not a single post on it), there were still appearing old posts on my Facebook timeline out of nothing (every now and then). I simply deleted these posts by hand.

Note from August 2021:

I see some comments who claim that this method does not work anymore. I can neither confirm nor deny it, as I deleted my Facebook account entirely. If it worked for you, please let others know in the comment section.