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Leaving Facebook: The Long Goodbye or the Impossible Goodbye?
By Privacy Maven | February 13, 2008
News surfaced in recent days that users could deactivate but not delete their Facebook profiles, but the glare of publicity and Facebook member outrage has forced Facebook to reverse the Facebook profile deletion policy.
Until now, Facebook has offered only a deactivation option, which keeps copies of the account’s personal information on the company’s servers. It is possible to delete an account fully using a cumbersome manual method, but it is difficult; many users complained that Facebook did not provide clear instructions.
On Monday, Facebook modified its help pages to tell people that if they wanted to remove their accounts entirely, they can direct the company by e-mail to have it done. But on Tuesday, representatives of Facebook stopped short of saying the company would introduce a one-step delete account option.
“We’re always working to improve the user experience,” Katie Geminder, director for user experience and design at Facebook, said in a statement sent by e-mail.
“We are measuring the effects of the change we made yesterday, and if we think more needs to be done to improve the user experience for deleting an account, we’ll test different implementations and measure them accordingly,” she added.
The updated Facebook help page now includes the question “How do I delete my account?” The answer: “If you do not think you will use Facebook again and would like your account deleted, we can take care of this for you. Keep in mind that you will not be able to reactivate your account or retrieve any of the content or information you have added.”
The entry then says, “If you would like your account deleted, please contact us using the form at the bottom of the page and confirm your request in the text box.”
Ms. Geminder said that Facebook’s policies were a reflection of the fact that many people came back to Facebook after they stopped using the site for a time. “On any given day, the number of users reactivating their accounts is roughly half of the number of users deactivating their accounts,” she said.
As The New York Times reported on Monday, some Facebook users who wished to close their accounts had been unable to do so, even after contacting Facebook’s customer service representatives. Many departing users, who could spend weeks or months trying to erase their accounts without success, turned to unofficial guides like the Facebook users group “How to permanently delete your Facebook account.”
Since Monday, almost 3,000 people have joined the group, which counted more than 7,000 members on Tuesday evening and had been growing by the hour. “I honestly did NOT know they kept your data after you deactivated your account,” one new member wrote on the group’s board. “I’m not leaving until I finish university,” she added, “but I’ll be glad of the info when I do.”
Another new member wrote, “Though I plan to stick around Facebook for a while, I joined this group so I know how to delete my account/profile when I do desire to leave. Thank you!”
Magnus Wallin, the Swedish patent examiner who founded the group, said his reaction to the company’s policy change was mixed. “Information on how to do it is great,” he said in an e-mail message. “But it should be really easily available. Not at the bottom of the help pages. And a ‘form’ sounds like you have to explain yourself. A regular delete button would be preferable, in my opinion.”
Neel Shaw reports on Facebook members’ anguish over Facebook’s privacy or lack thereof.
In fact, it is apparently so difficult to get off the social-networking site that a group, “How to permanently delete your Facebook account,” has been set up to provide detailed instructions outlining exactly how to do so. According to the group, achieving permanent deletion is an arduous, four-step process that takes about a week, though some of the people cited in the Times piece were able to delete their accounts only after placing multiple calls to Facebook higher-ups and threatening legal action.
Why would Facebook make it so difficult to leave? The official company line is so that deserters, should they decide to return, will be able to pick up where they left off. More alarmingly, though, it seems like yet another attempt by Facebook to retain valuable demographic information on users that it can sell to advertisers (assuming, of course, the company ever comes up with a way to monetize the information in the first place).
Steve O’Hear explains how to remove your profile permanently from Facebook. Simon Aughton discusses the new procedures for deleting your Facebook profile.
Topics: Social Networking |