Quitting Facebook Gets Easier
Social network adds form to help permanently delete content and photos in user profiles…
“Palo Alto-based Facebook Inc. has, up to now, offered a deactivation option that retains personal information of the user on the company’s servers. Deleting an account entirely has been difficult to do, some users said…”
Sure, it is popular and has been growing incessantly by leaps and bounds. Millions upon millions join the fold each and every quarter. But while many join, others wish to leave – and leave without a trace.
Aiming to address the privacy concerns of disenchanted users, Facebook.com last week took a “decent first step” by offering staffs help make it easier for people to delete their embarrassing social-networking posts, but Facebook says you cannot do it yourself. “If you do not ask, Facebook may keep your profile for, um, forever.”
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.
The past few days, however, have marked a moment at which the process of permanent account deletion on Facebook got exposed in the mainstream. The New York Times profiled last Monday the troubles many of the network’s users have been forced to contend with in their quest for out-and-out erasure of their Facebook profiles.
“Today, a user’s profile and all information associated with it are made inaccessible to other users when an account is deactivated. However, Facebook has acknowledged on the user help page that it does save content from the profile — such as user-generated data and photos — on its servers in case users want to reactivate accounts.”
A Facebook group with 10,000 members had been advocating for a simple way to delete an account. “Ever tried to leave Facebook and found out they only allow you to [deactivate] your account? All your personal data, including photos, interests, friends, etc., will still be saved indefinitely! You do not have to be a conspiracist to find this quite fishy (or simply annoying)!” a group message says.
“It is like the Hotel California,” Nipon Das, a director at a biotechnology consulting firm, told The New York Times. “You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave.”
Following complaints like that, the company modified its help page earlier in the week, saying users who wanted to completely remove accounts can ask Facebook staff to delete their profiles.
The update says, “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.”
But the next day, representatives of Facebook stopped short of saying the company would introduce a one-step delete account option.
“We are 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 will test different implementations and measure them accordingly,” she added.
While some members of the Facebook group called that a “decent first step” but called on Facebook to make the process more streamlined, the groups administrator asked why the social network opted to “hide” the form at the bottom of the help page.
“We are forcing Facebook in the right direction!” a post said. “But why hide the option far down in the help pages? And why make it a form? “Do I first have to go hunting for HOW to leave, and then explain WHY?” the administrator 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.”
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.
“Josh Catone, a blogger at Read Write Web noted that being able to permanently remove information from social networks like Facebook is not a trivial requirement for many users.”
“Facebook and other social sites are fast becoming your online ‘permanent record,’” he added. “People often feel comfortable disclosing sensitive information on these networks, possibly because they are communicating with friends. Being able to remove that personal information permanently is an option that I would wager many people want, even if most are not clamoring to exercise it (until the need to delete outweighs the utility of having an account, most people are not going to want to delete their account).”
The ability to delete goes to the heart of the darkness of social networks. The ease of posting material about yourself — and connecting to friends and coworkers can easily be overshadowed by the risk of having unsavory material permanently stored. That is especially a risk for young users who post photos of themselves in bikinis or drunken stupors.
Since last 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 will 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!”
Facebook blamed a technical snag for the predicament of Nipon Das, a business consultant in Manhattan who spent two months trying to delete his account but nevertheless continued to receive messages and notes from friends through Facebook.
“Das appears to have an active account on Facebook, which is why you are able to view his mostly empty profile and why he still may be receiving messages or friend requests,” Geminder said. “If Das wishes to deactivate or delete his account from Facebook, his profile will not be viewable by anyone.”
Das — who described his plight by quoting lyrics from the Eagles song “Hotel California” that say, “You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave” — has found himself cast as an unlikely mascot for disgruntled Facebook users. Several of them have found his empty profile and sent him messages, “ranging from Eagles song quotes to those of support,” he said.
“I have turned into the test case,” he said.
Indeed, the account deletion process still requires some manual intervention by site administrators. But at least it is now possible to emigrate away from the network without having to call a representative and do a pretty-please-delete-me skit to get the job done.