The West Vancouver Memorial Library is running free workshops to teach people how to delete their Facebook profiles.

Facebook received a lot of backlash in 2018 over concerns relating to misuse of user data, misinformation and fake news, and security and privacy concerns. The criticism caused many to think twice about what they choose to share on Facebook.

Digital librarian Kaya Fraser from the West Vancouver Memorial Library says getting off Facebook is not as easy as getting on Facebook.

Fraser says the library offers classes on how to join social media platforms while also protecting individuals' privacy. But recently it has noticed fewer people are signing up for the classes.

"When they were signing up for it, many who were coming already had Facebook accounts. And they were more interested in learning how to protect their privacy, control their data, and sometimes how to quit," Fraser told On the Coast host Gloria Macarenko.

Fraser says she thinks people are growing tired of constantly using social media and technology.

Kaya Fraser said the library ran their first how-to-quit-Facebook class in fall 2018. People in the class were worried about privacy, security, fake news and misinformation, and whether their data is being used improperly. (Wilfredo Lee/The Associated Press)

Cut it out

Fraser said the library ran its first how-to-quit-Facebook class in fall 2018. People in the class were worried about privacy, security, fake news and misinformation, and whether their data is being used improperly.

Fraser says she also noticed people wanted to find a way to balance their social media consumption and not overuse Facebook.

"People in general want to exert control over their digital lives," she said.

There are three ways to make that happen, says Fraser. People can stop using Facebook, taking prolonged breaks from the platform or deleting the app. They can also deactivate their account. This pauses the account and makes the user invisible to others on Facebook. But the data is still stored on Facebook servers.

The final and most radical option is to delete the account entirely.

Fraser says that before users do this, they may want to download their data — a ZIP file full of all the pictures including everything they've ever liked and every status update they've ever made.

Three months after taking this step, most of the user's data should be gone from Facebook.

Some of the data that will remain include messages the user sent to people.

Listen to the full interview here:

With files from On the Coast.