Facebook Privacy Settings: How Do I Delete My Facebook Account Forever And Bring Order Back Into My Life?

20110127 Update: Thanks to hackers who hacked into CEO's Mark Zuckerberg's Facebook page, Facebook has SSL (ie "https://") service, if you need it, but you will still need to enable it first, and it may not be available in your country; check out this article here.

So you are at the point where you are burning with rage at all the atrocities against user privacy that Facebook has committed? And you want to banish Facebook forever! Or maybe you have tried deleting Mafia Wars or Farmville or any Facebook game but kept coming back to it after a few weeks because they always managed to tempt you back? That and the fact that you cannot find the link to uninstall Mafia Wars or Farmville. Well, don't bother finding it because there isn't any uninstall link.

Step-by-step Guide On How To Delete Facebook Permanently

Take a deep breath and ask yourself this question: Can you cope without Facebook at all? If the answer is Yes, we will go ahead and delete Facebook.
If the answer is No, or you are unsure, then maybe it is better to just temporarily disable Facebook - read my other hub here: http://hubpages.com/hub/Deactivate-Facebook-Account.

Preparation:
1. Make sure you have also gotten hold of the contacts of all those you are friends with or at least suck up to you on Facebook. Get their Twitter or other addresses so that you can stay in touch or send forwards to later. ;)

2. Next, check if any of your internet logins depends on "Facebook Connect" - sites like Digg, Howcast, Vimeo, etc. Go check against this list of "Facebook Connect" sites, at http://wiki.developers.facebook.com/index.php/User:Facebook_Connect_Live_Sites.
When you found one, the easiest way is to login into that particular site and change the way you connect to it, from "Facebook Connect" to using the good old password login.


Deletion:
3. Log into your Facebook account and click on any of these 2 urls:
http://www.facebook.com/help/contact.php?show_form=delete_account
https://ssl.facebook.com/help/contact.php?show_form=delete_account

4. Follow the rest of the directions at the step-by-step picture guide below:

As you can see from above, deleting is not final yet, as Facebook is too enamored with your personal data (which means more dollars from sponsors to them) to ever let you go.
So, as you found out, even when you want to delete Facebook, you can't do so straight away as Facebook is like a dumped ex-lover that still wants to cling on to you.

Thus, you have the 14-day grace period where you can still kiss and make-up to keep the relationship. Any day within the 14-day period, if your itchy hands were to click on Facebook's email to you - tempted perhaps by Mafia Wars or Farmville withdrawal symptoms, you will be enabling back your Facebook. And so begin another 14-day period, should you decide to remove Facebook again after that.

Precaution

Within the 14-day "We will do everything to get you back" period:
DO NOT login to your Facebook account
-It would be a good precaution to clear your browser cache and cookies so that you will never login without realising it.
DO NOT click on any "Facebook Connect" button, whether to login or to signup on any other site.
DO NOT click the "Facebook Share" button on any site you visit.
DO NOT click on any Facebook app you may have on your smartphone; delete it now or at least remove the login and password.
DO NOT click on anything that has Facebook in it, if you do so, you've been snared by the many traps laid out for you all over the internet by Facebook.

Bliss (/Life After Facebook)

After 14 days, you will disappear from your Facebook friends' pages forever!

The benefits:
-No more Mafia Wars! It's getting boring anyway!
-No more login into Facebook to see who posted the latest cr*p on your wall!
-No more reading insane ramblings from random people!
-No more strangers showing concern when you change your relationship status.
-and a hundred things more that you are too familiar with ...

And I shall leave you now with this famous old Chinese Zen saying:

Before Facebook: chop wood, carry water,
After Facebook: chop wood, carry water. ;)