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Facebook Adds Delete Account Option

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the and-stay-out dept.

roseability writes "Facebook have quietly added the ability to delete you account. 'Deactivate Account', under Account Setting, has become 'Deactivate or Delete Account', and when checked it purports to permanently delete your account and all information you have shared. Facebook is actually willing to erase your data permanently? They must be counting on very few people doing so." Mixed reports on this: perhaps this is a limited test?

12 of 249 comments (clear)

  1. Reality still wins. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Well that took long enough. Real life's had this ever since cyanide.

    1. Re:Reality still wins. by larry+bagina · · Score: 5, Insightful

      where is slashdot's delete account button?

      --
      Do you even lift?

      These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.

    2. Re:Reality still wins. by adolf · · Score: 5, Interesting

      There is absolutely nothing you would gain from deleting a slashdot account.

      Your posts would not be deleted, as no other post is ever deleted without a grounded Cease&Desist or similar legal reason, your journal is public info as well. The only removable thing is your user description, which can be replaced with an empty string at a whim.

      Thank you for the detailed opinion as to why you, personally, would have nothing to gain by deleting your own account on Slashdot.

      But please realize that the fact that it's always been that way on Slashdot does not mean that it should be that way, and that others may have a different opinion than you.

      I've been here a long time. There is far more personal detail about me on Slashdot than my Facebook page is likely ever to contain. Mostly, this is because I'm pseudo-anonymous here. I don't think I have enough publicly-available information on Slashdot that someone can pin my pseudonym down to who I really am, but it would doubtlessly be rather easy to do given access to Slashdot's non-public data.

      Thankfully, Rob Malda, along with his handlers and peons, have over the years earned my trust that they will treat my non-public data with a reasonable amount of respect.

      When the day comes that I feel like my trust has the potential to be violated, I want a button that says "Delete this account and everything associated with it," and I want it to work, at least within the confines of Slashdot. I expect this, in particular, from an organization such as Slashdot which has sometimes daily postings about privacy and abuses thereof.

      I don't care if such a button is rendered somewhat meaningless by other web sites. I just want Slashdot to do the right thing and nuke my stuff on request, just like the editors here clearly expect everyone else to do.

      Meanwhile, look down at the bottom of this very page. See the line that says Comments are owned by the Poster? That, too.

      --
      Kid-proof tablet..
  2. A strange game... by bhunachchicken · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ... the only winning move is not to play.

    --
    THE HONOUR OF THE KNIGHTS - CC Licensed Sci-Fi Novel
  3. I deleted my account months ago by FictionPimp · · Score: 5, Informative

    They have always had an option to delete your account or deactivate. They just made finding the delete function easier now.

  4. If this would allow us to get rid of... by sarkeizen · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Our one friend who killed herself's account. That would be nice. Having her profile continually show up with the "you haven't talked to X in a while send them a message and reconnect with them" box. Doesn't actually make facebook win any sensitivity awards in my book.

    1. Re:If this would allow us to get rid of... by bacon+volcano · · Score: 5, Informative

      There was a good article in the New York Times about this a week or so ago. It's actually a bit of an issue for the site. Turns out they do have a way of handling it, but it's far from perfect.

      http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/18/technology/18death.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=facebook%20dead&st=cse

  5. Re:Troll? by nacturation · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The post sounds kind of troll-ish to me. Why is this so shocking? Pretty much every internet club out there gives you the ability to delete your account. Why would Facebook be the exception? Maybe I'm missing something. It's just seems normal that if you create an account you have the ability to delete it if you want to.

    Please tell me how to delete my Slashdot account. Bonus points for telling me how I can delete the data including every post I've made.

    --
    Want to improve your Karma? Instead of "Post Anonymously", try the "Post Humously" option.
  6. is "delete" really an option? by ad0n · · Score: 5, Interesting

    i just "re-activated" my long deactivated account in the hopes of "deleting" it finally. i only had the de-activate option.. no delete available on my screen.

    1. Re:is "delete" really an option? by Goaway · · Score: 5, Informative

      I did the exact same thing, and got the same result. However, I recalled hearing that the option has existed for some time already, and has just been very well hidden.

      I looked it up, and the trick is to go to this address:

      http://www.facebook.com/help/contact.php?show_form=delete_account

  7. Re:Troll? by Jon+Adbott · · Score: 5, Funny

    Disregard that! I suck cocks!

  8. Re:Doesn't Matter by Shihar · · Score: 5, Interesting

    If the delete option works, great. Personally, the split second another comparable service comes out that catches maybe 5 or so of my closets friends... I am gone. I probably won't delete my account, but I will purge the ever living crap out of it and leave it as a glorified address book page.

    The issue with Facebook is that it has lost my trust. Facebook doesn't do what I want it to do anymore. Facebook started as a thing for college students to connect and share college studentie stuff. Now, my freaking grandmother is one Facebook. Yeah, I can sit around and fiddle with my privacy settings and make a special grandma list that I have to remember to use every time I wont to post something that she might hurt her 70 year old sensibilities, but it is a pain in the ass.

    It is going to be pretty easy to get me to jump ship. Just give me a social networking site that lets me have a split personality. We naturally have split personalities. The face you present in a meeting at work is different from the one you present to your mom and different from the one you present to your friends on Friday night. Facebook absolutely sucks at making this distinction. Not only does Facebook suck at making this decision, they keep desperately trying to get you to post ALL your information to the world. The first social networking site with a clean interface and that understands that we all have split personalities is going to stand over Facebook's bloated corpse. They don't even need to destroy Facebook, just offer up something convincing enough that I will use the alternative and Facebook. A social networking site that lets me cleanly and smoothly deal with my co-workers and grandmother wanting to be 'friends' in addition to my real friends is going to have Facebooks head on a pike.