It's possible to have a Messenger account without an activated Facebook account. Perhaps you could move to Messenger group chats and keep up with relatives there, so Facebook doesn't even get to add you to their MAUs.

I knew this was possible but I still completely deleted my account. Didn't want to have anything to do with Facebook at all. Friends and family know my number/email if it's something that matters.

Plus, deactivating an account still leaves you the option of reactivating, and I didn't want to do that in a moment of information-starved weakness, so they must still have your data.

Of course, you then have to trust that they actually do delete your data when you delete your account.

Given that Facebook creates shadow profiles of people who don't have accounts, I'm sure they still have your data in some form.

But it's still worthwhile deleting your account, as it reduces your overall visibility to their all-seeing eye.

How is this done? I am not seeing instructions for this anywhere.

I use messenger.com or the app regularly as it's how large group of friends talk (sigh). I haven't personally viewed main FB UI in a few years now.

The last time I tried you could start fresh with just a phone number on messenger. That was 6 or 7 years ago so I'm not sure what has changed since then. Messenger always seemed very open to letting nonFB users in since they have a chance to be converted to full time users.

I expect many young people have accounts and a native phone app which mines data (as I understand it) even if they don't log in.