Facebook messenger: removing evidence of talking about employer?

chocnilla_cupcake

One of those how could you be so stupid things, I know. I'm trying to see if I can somehow prevent a situation.


Basically I have a group chat in Messenger with a small number of people. At times we & I have said things about work that aren't so great. Nothing has ever been said.
Story short I can see potential for something to come out due to one of the individuals in the group and I'd like to sleep well at night.


First step is to never discuss work or anything related to work on social media.
Second step is a bit of a problem as the messages are already there.


I looked at deleting them but then A) that only deletes them my end and any message deleted apparently throws up a notification that I deleted a message. Would be a bit strange having a load of messages show up.


So then the only thing I can think of is what if I delete the whole group (sorry my hand slipped on the mouse) and then just create a new one whereby I don't discuss work at all - would this erase all history of the group messages from the other peoples devices?

poppellerant

I don't use Facebook or Facebook Messenger, but something you have no control over is if somebody has taken screenshots or photos of the chat.

Personally I would just delete the group immediately with no warning of you doing so. Create a new group and hope that you and others are more sensible in the future.

In the meantime, pray nobody has reason to take screenshots and provide them to your employer.

Neil_Jones

Messages in a group chat can be seen by everybody. If people break away from the group they can still see what was said even from people who are no longer in the group chat. This applies even if their account is deactivated, you could see their contributions from a deactivated account.

Moral of the story as you say - never discuss work on social media and if in doubt don't say it.

chocnilla_cupcake

yes I've just ran a test and it seems it doesn't work. I tried deleting the group but it remained for everyone. I then removed the people in the test and then deleted the group but again the group remained for everyone and also said who had removed them.


So it seems I'm just to hope nothing happens and just don't say anything from hereon in.


I don't think the individuals in the group would say anything. It's been running for 3 years or so with nothing said and it's not even mainly about work, just that it's been mentioned. Like I said, without going in to detail it depends on who else knows about the contents of the group and it's not necessarily just those in it. Fingers crossed.

Frozen_up_north

Does this work for you?

https://learn.g2.com/how-to-delete-facebook-messages

Chino

chocnilla_cupcake wrote: »

I don't think the individuals in the group would say anything.

But in your OP you said:

chocnilla_cupcake wrote: »

Story short I can see potential for something to come out due to one of the individuals in the group

Chino

Frozen_up_north wrote: »

Does this work for you?

It possibly won't:

"How long do I have to delete messages in Facebook messenger?
If you want to delete a sent message on Facebook, you have to do it within 10 minutes."

[Deleted User]

Frozen_up_north wrote: »

Does this work for you?

https://learn.g2.com/how-to-delete-facebook-messages

Just checked and it's not active in the UK for starters and when it is it'll only work for the first 10 minutes after you hit send.

Edit: just realised I was trying it on an older message

2nd Edit: it does work for recently posted messages.

spadoosh

I dont full understand GDPR but i suspect it could work for you. Can you not request that a company deletes all data it holds on you? And thus messages, ID, photos etc?

Theres certainly a lot of anonymous users on MSE, presumably from GDPR requests.

Blackbeard_of_Perranporth

mind me again why I only post bullshine on fracklebuck?

Takmon

chocnilla_cupcake wrote: »

I don't think the individuals in the group would say anything. It's been running for 3 years or so with nothing said and it's not even mainly about work, just that it's been mentioned. Like I said, without going in to detail it depends on who else knows about the contents of the group and it's not necessarily just those in it. Fingers crossed.

Another thing i'm not sure you know about is that if anyone new gets added to the group they can see every message in that group from the start.