Facebook Adds Delete Account Option 249
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?
Reality still wins. (Score:5, Funny)
Well that took long enough. Real life's had this ever since cyanide.
Re:Reality still wins. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Reality still wins. (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Facebook accounts, on the other hand, nearly by definition contain slews of personal data.
It's like a public mailing list vs private mail.
Re:Reality still wins. (Score:5, Interesting)
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 [slashdot.org] and abuses thereof.
I don't care if such a button is rendered somewhat meaningless [archive.org] 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.
Re:Reality still wins. (Score:4, Insightful)
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.
Especially if some social networking site was to buy Slashdot and then helpfully combine your profiles based on matching email addresses.
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How so? The numeric IDs are assigned sequentially, so even if it had the same name it would have a new number.
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Says you! [slashdot.org]
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Will it delete your data? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Will it delete your data? (Score:5, Informative)
In several countries (eg. Canada) they cannot retain the info once you've requested it deleted. They also cannot simply sell it to whomever they want.
A strange game... (Score:5, Insightful)
... the only winning move is not to play.
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Yes. Except that sometimes they spam you even if you've never played.
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You're comparing Facebook to thermonuclear war? Give me a break.
Re:A strange game... (Score:5, Funny)
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It's tic-tac-toe that teaches him the concept of an unwinnable game though.
Re:A strange game... (Score:5, Insightful)
Tic-tac-toe isn’t unwinnable, it’s unlosable. Much different from global thermonuclear war.
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Oh, no. I've seen people lose at tic-tac-toe...I've even seen people (adults, mind you) lose at tic-tac-toe to a chicken. (Why yes, this was in Las Vegas, why do you ask?)
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I never said that other people couldn’t lose. It’s not unwinnable, remember?
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Actually, he goes from playing GTW to Tic Tac Toe at Falken's direction, learns the concept of an unwinnable game from that, and applies that knowledge to the former. So it applies to both.
not quite (Score:2)
You're comparing Facebook to thermonuclear war? Give me a break.
No. He is comparing it to global thermonuclear war. ;)
if you know what movie that quote is from (Score:3, Insightful)
you are old enough to have avoided the facebook boondoggle in the first place
so its a wash
incidentally, discovering the philosophical connection between global thermonuclear war and social networking is both deep and hilarious
Uh.... Hello? Server Backups? (Score:3, Insightful)
Even if it's truly deleted, I'll bet the data is out there in an archive somewhere.
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I've done it many times, normally after they've pissed me off and caused me to waste some of my time. Tell them that an administrator is not qualified, and clicking a 'delete' button is not enough. Offsite backups deleted too.
Maybe they do and maybe they don't. There would be fun and games if they contacted me in the future.
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The Data Protection Act allows organisations to keep data about you even without your consent if it is necessary for their business. A good example would be credit agencies - if they had to delete data on request it would be easy to wipe your history clean and people with a history of defaulting on debts would be able to clear the slate any time they wanted to. Banks also need to keep records for (IIRC) 6 years to meet legal requirements etc.
You can request a copy of all information held about you and that
I deleted my account months ago (Score:5, Informative)
They have always had an option to delete your account or deactivate. They just made finding the delete function easier now.
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I'm simply saying this is not new. For at least the last 12 months (checking with people I know who have deleted their accounts) you have had the option to do so.
Re:I deleted my account months ago (Score:4, Informative)
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Always was just just used in place for "as long as I've given a shit to check"
it's only one line of code, after all (Score:2, Funny)
typedef DeactivateAccount DeleteAccount;
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Yeesh, such a pedant....
define("DeleteAccount", "DeactivateAccount");
function DeleteAccount($id)
{
DeactivateAccount($id);
}
function DeactivateAccount($id)
{
ArchiveForeverAndEver($id);
If this would allow us to get rid of... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:If this would allow us to get rid of... (Score:5, Informative)
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/18/technology/18death.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=facebook%20dead&st=cse [nytimes.com]
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You can request for an account of a deceased person to be removed by providing proof of death (news articles/death certificate).
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Its easier to delete your own account, plus that improves your life by decluttering it.
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I'm still looking for the:
[x] Send an email reminder about deleting my account after I died.
Option in FB.
Re:If this would allow us to get rid of... (Score:4, Funny)
Twitter have got her down as inoperative... Microsoft has her down as excised,
Apple have her down as completed
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What?
I'm not into Facebook - yet! What am I missing? (Score:2)
For sure...I am not into Facebook and do not yet see the reason why I should join it. Connection to me and vice versa can be done using traditional means especially email.
Most importantly, many times, I just need to be left alone by especially by those from my past.
I believe most of the 500,000,000 folks on Facebook are not doing anything useful on the site. Most of those accounts are just 'feel good accounts'. Right?
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Connection to me and vice versa can be done using traditional means especially email.
Oh the nativity of youth. When email becomes a traditional communication I know I'm getting old.
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Sorry, can't let this one go. "Naivete"
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Well, in fairness, most people are quite youthful at the time of their nativity.
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If you really think e-mail isn't a traditional form of communcation, you are in fact old.
I rather suspect you are mixing up traditional with obsolescent or obsolete.
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Re:I'm not into Facebook - yet! What am I missing? (Score:4, Interesting)
I have recently signed up for facebook because my friends stopped calling and texting people and just started posting "I'll be at blah blah blah at 8pm tonight, come along". I was missing out on a lot of fun things I could possibly be doing because I didn't have an account, so now I have one.
That's the same reason I deleted mine. Kid whom sat at the same lunch table as me in 8th grade posted every single time he entered or left a restaurant or bar (kind of like a manual foursquare). I guess I could go alone, unfortunately he now lives almost 3000 miles away. Dude I worked with a decade ago posts every time he goes to the gym, for motivation, I guess. I guess I could go along, unfortunately he lives 200 miles away. Same deal with the guy who was my high school physics lab partner, now living about 100 miles away.
When I got rid of all the pseudo-spammers and ignored all my far away "old friends" there wasn't really enough left to bother keeping the account... So I used this "new" feature in May to delete it, and nobody seems to care except my wife.
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So hide him.
If he ever decides to send you a message, write on your wall, or comment on one of your posts, you’d see it. In the meantime, you don’t have to read all of his dumb status updates. Just click the convenient Hide button and tell it to hide him from your news feed.
Sheesh some people make things so difficult.
Facebook is all about the hide (Score:2)
Good advice from a facebook friend, whom I promptly hid.
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And 15 years ago someone would have been asking why he needed email, when he can use traditional forms of connection such as the telephone and the postal service.
Back in the 1980s, when we used to use paper memos to send information around the company rather then email, I remember there was a woman in the office that used a computer to pre
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But some see maintaining a social network is something they can improve on using a tool specifically designed for the job.
Tool designed specifically to sell your personal information to marketing / pr / HR / credit score companies / Big Brother / "who knows, but it sure won't be to your benefit".
Also, lets face it, facebook is pretty much software support for inane and stupid stuff. Its "friends" in that your friends suffer thru with you, like going to Basic Training together.
is "delete" really an option? (Score:5, Interesting)
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Was there anything positive you got from joining Facebook...or did joining further 'complicate' your life?
Re:is "delete" really an option? (Score:5, Interesting)
Positives: I got to touch base with high school friends, I got used it to organize some parties.
Negatives: I got to touch base with high school friends, It was impossible to sort though all the crap that came in, I was constantly ignoring this and that, I started unfriending people who posted too much shit to get shit from them for unfriending them. It started arguments with my family when I didn't want to friend them or I friended them and ignored them. I lost real life friends because facebook allowed me to learn more about their personalities then I ever really wanted to know. I got into real life arguments because I didn't check or respond to a facebook status.
Conclusion: I'm not 12, and if I'm not important enough to at least call on the phone, then I guess we really are not 'friends'.
Replacement options: Google Calendar for organizing parties, twitter for posting my useless comments no one cares about, and phone, email, texting for the rest.
Re:is "delete" really an option? (Score:4, Insightful)
You may not be 12, but it sounds like your friends act like they are, and some of your family.
I have plenty of real friends who I ignore on FB, and I tell them about it. They don't mind because they're my friends. I have real life friends and family who I won't friend on FB, but I tell them why, and it doesn't affect our relationship. I hide everyone's feed that updates 3 times a day, and those whose posts are trivial daily activities ("Driving home," "Eating dinner with wife and kids," etc,) or that I just don't want a daily/weekly update about. I don't "like" anything since they changed the info section into mindless lists. I don't even "like" the band I play in. I block my status updates from some. I ignore posts to my wall frequently, and delete everyone else's posts to my wall from time to time. None of this has affected any of my real life relationships.
It's just facebook, it doesn't really matter. If you keep that attitude, people will accept it. If they can't or won't, they probably aren't the kind of person you'd want as a friend. Or at least that I'd want as a friend.
Re:is "delete" really an option? (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 [facebook.com]
Well well well (Score:2)
They only made it easier to do (Score:4, Informative)
Had this long ago (Score:3, Informative)
They have had this option to delete accounts for years now.
I even used it like 4 years ago.
Maybe they just moved the button that starts the process?
How can you tell? (Score:2)
How does someone who owns data prove that he has deleted every copy of it?
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Legal extortion is possible (Score:4, Interesting)
One of Facebook's options is to keep all the status updates and pictures for 10-20 years, then republish everything. For a "deletion fee", they will keep all your high school and college pictures, raunchy status updates, and other potentially embarrassing information off the internet. Most wouldn't care, but I'm sure there's plenty who want a high profile job that would pay dearly to keep that hidden.
AFAIK, it's completely legal, and already impossible to stop, they own the data and you (or someone you know) voluntarily published it once. It's pretty likely that they'll be replaced by the next big social media site or at least won't be doing nearly as well financially in 10-20 years as they are now, if they still exist. And if they go bankrupt, anyone could buy the data and do the same thing.
I don't think it's likely, but it is possible.
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I'd probably say it is almost definitely will happen. Remember: There are no criminal laws against data loss in the US, only civil, unless the data is classified+. So, a place can file bankruptcy, someone else can buy the stored data and do what they want with it, and there will be zero legal recourse possible.
What is needed are data retention laws that people face jail/prison terms. Then, we might see some action. Otherwise, expect those photos of lighting farts in high school to haunt people even whe
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AFAIK, it's completely legal, and already impossible to stop, they own the data and you (or someone you know) voluntarily published it once.
It's too bad there aren't laws against blackmail and extortion.
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They don't cover pictures that you published of yourself in the past, and that you freely gave up to facebook. All they are doing is what you gave them the legal right to do, and even asked them to do. They could argue that they have to verify that you really are who you say you are, and this costs them to do so, so they charge a fee to do it.
You can't keep a newspaper from republishing a picture you gave to them to publish, but they might not run it if you pay for advertisements in the same paper.
Say what? (Score:2)
Facebook have quietly added the ability to delete you account
Did it come at the expense of the ability to grammar check their own news releases? I did not know that good grammar and common sense were mutually exclusive.
Thanks (Score:2)
for the pointer, it seemed to work, although they insist on keeping it a zombie for two weeks so I can re-activate it.
Re:Troll? (Score:4, Interesting)
Facebook has had a (generally difficult) way of deactivating your account for years (all along?). But their TOS say that they reserve the right to keep your data forever. TFA is implying that this may have changed and that deleting your account now may in fact remove your data from their servers. Personally I'm not holding my breath.
While I agree that TFA seems a bit speculative I don't think the OP is trolling. I think enough of us on /. have taken an interest in FB's over reaching grab on people's personal data that even speculation on it changing (esp. for the good) is newsworthy. (IMHO of course...)
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Re:Troll? (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.
Re:Troll? (Score:5, Interesting)
Slashdot is a different beast, though. It wasn't started in a model that encouraged using real names/identities -- ie, using your .edu email address specifically to connect with people at your school. Registered slashdot users also tend not to be complete morons, and there is a lack of many features which morons find attractive, such as the ability to post pictures of ourselves shotgunning bear while holding a joint in one hand and an under-age girl in the other. You know, stuff like that.
A few months ago I started skunking my FB data, then removing it. Last week I deleted the account (there was a way to do it before they made it obvious). In FB's attempt to attract more users and build a "platform," they've just made it slightly less horrible than MySpace. I got phone numbers and email addresses for the friends that mattered and for whom I wasn't already in possession of the information, then just slipped away. Do you have any idea how much more time I have to waste on Slashdot again now that I don't have any competing sites?
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oops.. I meant beer not bear (though both can totally be shotgunned). Stupid brain farts. I'm useless before I've had my 2 pots of coffee.
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oops.. I meant beer not bear (though both can totally be shotgunned). Stupid brain farts. I'm useless before I've had my 2 pots of coffee.
Personally, I like to have a rip-roaring start to the day by consuming 2 pints of bear.
Re:Troll? (Score:5, Funny)
Registered slashdot users also tend not to be complete morons
Do you also have the "Apple" section blocked?
Re:Troll? (Score:5, Funny)
Registered slashdot users also tend not to be complete morons
Do you also have the "Apple" section blocked?
There's an "Apple" section??? Never noticed...
Re:Troll? (Score:5, Interesting)
The Slashdot user ID was made to require people to use the same name/identity... Prior to that time, people could enter in whatever name they wanted (different for each post even), and people would often pretend to be Bill Gates, Linus Torvalds, etc. I personally think it was more interesting back then because there were flamewars between famous computing people. :^)
Re:Troll? (Score:5, Funny)
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"Slashdot is a different beast, though."
Sure, but the issue here is the ability to delete accounts. It's perfectly possible for someone to write something libelous and then wish a few years later that they could delete it. You could argue that it may not be possible to trace it back to its original owner, but most Slashdot users at some point point towards a website / project, etc. that can identify them.
"Registered slashdot users also tend not to be complete morons"
Slashdot uses a moderation system tha
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The problem is that you need an account to keep tabs on what other people are posting about you. For example, if someone tags you in a photo but you don't have an account you can't delete the tag, or even know it is there if their photos are not public.
My solution is to create an account in your name but fill it with obvious fabrications. My date of birth is listed as 01/01/1901 and I don't have a profile photo. People I know still respond to friend requests so I can keep an eye on them and if anyone tries
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Random facts from day one that match your virtual fun, just make it matches what a web cam can see
Re:Doesn't Matter (Score:4, Funny)
Damn right!
I won't be satisfied until the delete button releases nanites which crawl into the backups, and REALLY delete my profile.
Re:Doesn't Matter (Score:4, Interesting)
When I filed for divorce, my name, my soon-to-be-ex's name, my current address, my martial status, my soon-to-be-martial-status was all made a matter of permanent public record.
Anybody can go to the state's court website and look it up, in perpetuity.
At least with Facebook, I got to consent to the privacy loss.
Re:Doesn't Matter (Score:4, Interesting)
Marriages are in the public record, too. Did you complain about that when you got hitched?
Re:Doesn't Matter (Score:4, Funny)
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Re:Doesn't Matter (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.
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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...
Five friends in your closet eh? Normally, stepping out of the closet is the problematic part but you're just jamming them in there...
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Same here... Just Deactivation.
Although I did find it interesting that when you look at deactivation the order of the reasons changes. Only "Other" remains in the same place....
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They promise to delete your account within 14 days without active use. (if you login, you reactivate your account.)
See delete account [facebook.com]
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I believe Google has offered self-service deletion of Google Account information for some time now.
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Yar, that ye can, matey.
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With the way most databases work [1], I'm almost completely sure that most social networking sites do keep backlevel copies. All it would take is just looking at a certain point in time with an archive log at tables used for a certain account, and it wouldn't be hard to see what happens over time.
In fact, I am sure this is or will be monetized. A social network could make some good cash if they figured out over time what people changed or preferred through their FB status and preference changes. For exam