Nearly one in 10 Americans surveyed say they deleted their Facebook account over privacy concerns

TECH INSIDER

• Nine percent of Americans in a new survey said they had deleted their Facebook account over privacy concerns.
• Thirty-five percent said they were using Facebook less than they used to.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in his testimony this week in Washington that there was not a "meaningful" number of people who had deleted their Facebook account following revelations that data firms were able to steal personal information from millions of users.

At the same time, the hashtag "#DeleteFacebook" has trended following the Cambridge Analytica, and you may even personally know people who zapped their Facebook account.

So Carolina Milanesi and the technology research group Techpinions decided to survey 1,000 Americans, representative of the country in age and gender, about their feelings regarding the social-networking giant.

Here are the big takeaways:

• 17% of respondents said they deleted the Facebook app from their phone over privacy concerns.
• 35% said they were using Facebook less than they used to over the privacy issue.
• 9% reported deleting their Facebook account altogether.
• 39% said they were "very aware" of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, while 37% said they were "somewhat aware."

Of course, there may be a gap between people who say they deleted their Facebook and those who actually did. And Americans account for only a fraction of Facebook's user base.

Either way, Milanesi writes that lower engagement is actually the real risk for Facebook, not necessarily people deleting their accounts.

According to the study, two out of five people surveyed who had been on Facebook for over seven years wanted it to "go back to how it was." Facebook's main product hasn't changed that much in recent years, so perhaps, like Zuckerberg, they're reminiscing about a time when the company was run out of a Harvard dorm room and the key feature was the "poke."

 You can read the entire Techpinions write-up of the survey here.

• FaceBook Options: Delete, deactivate, or detach

 TIPS  by SHARON PROFIS 

• Permanently delete your account. This is irreversible -- all your data will be removed, your profile will disappear and you'll need to sign up for Facebook again if you want back in.

• Deactivate your account. This option is for people who know that, eventually, they'll succumb to their addiction. Deactivating essentially puts your account on hold, so you can restore it to the same state it was in when you left it. This also lets you continue using Facebook Messenger.

• Detach yourself. I really don't recommend this one. There are very few people in this world who have enough self-control to forgo deleting or deactivating their account in favor of ignoring Facebook. But if your addiction is mild or you were never really into Facebook anyway, this option could work for you.

To permanently delete your account, go to this page. To deactivate your account, go here. Just be warned, Facebook uses a weird combination of psychology and desperation to try and prevent you from quitting.

If you plan to detach yourself and use self-control to "quit" Facebook, here are some tips:

• Opt out of Facebook's email notifications

• Minimize your profile by making your Timeline, photos and anything else you can private

• Delete the app from your phone and remove any bookmarks

• Use an option like Space (for iPhone) to reverse your addiction.

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