Quit Facebook Day inspires over 30,000 to leave
Privacy campaign says Facebook users left the social networking site in their droves on Monday, representing a minor dent in the service's 500 million user base.


More than 30,000 Facebook users have said they've left the social networking site as part of a campaign to get people to quit the site over privacy concerns.
According to the campaign, quitfacebookday.com, 34,046 users had left Facebook on 31 May. For those users who needed a reminder, the organisers offered to send out emails on the big day.
"For us it comes down to two things: fair choices and best intentions. In our view, Facebook doesn't do a good job in either department," the organisers, known only as @mmilan and @josephdee, said on their website. "We also don't think Facebook has much respect for you or your data, especially in the context of the future."
The reported numbers that have left Facebook will not make a huge dent on the 500 million global subscriber base that Facebook enjoys.
Nevertheless, the negative publicity surrounding Facebook in recent months has led to the site announcing new privacy settings.
These will make it simpler to ensure information is only visible to friends, and enable users to reduce the amount of data that is available to others.
Read on to see why Facebook says there's no reason to leave the social networking site.
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Tom Brewster is currently an associate editor at Forbes and an award-winning journalist who covers cyber security, surveillance, and privacy. Starting his career at ITPro as a staff writer and working up to a senior staff writer role, Tom has been covering the tech industry for more than ten years and is considered one of the leading journalists in his specialism.
He is a proud alum of the University of Sheffield where he secured an undergraduate degree in English Literature before undertaking a certification from General Assembly in web development.
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