DISQUS

Webomatica: To Really Quit Facebook, Know The Difference Between “Deactivate” And “Delete”

  • tigerlil · 1 year ago
    hmm. that's funny, you were so clear (in your original facebook quitting blog) that my info could get retained, that when I quit facebook, I requested full deletion with an email. My experience wasn't the same as our friend's. I in fact got questioned on my decision (was this based on that my account had so much data and his had less?). I wrote an email that made it very clear blah, blah blah AND .... "I also resent that you make it so difficult to completely delete your account and all my private info. Remove every bit of info you have on me please"

    to this I got a response explaining how deactivating is such a nicer option, didn't I really just want to deactivate? Could I have been any more clear that NO that is not what I wanted.

    Here's a portion of my testy response:

    "I haven't regretted leaving mySpace! (I bet that hurt the customer service guy)
    Delete it completely. That is what my email said."
  • webomatica · 1 year ago
    Wow, that is another angle - so you had a little bit of a content retention attempt via emal. That's too bad. I think we're finally free though!
  • Ruth · 1 year ago
    If you want a step-by-step guide on deactivating your facebook account or deleting it, go to http://antisocial.nectareen.com/?p=15 and follow it. Well worth your time.
  • Mike · 1 year ago
    Man, I wish there was a better service for connecting to people other than Facebook - here's hoping OpenSocial becomes better and more widely adopted.

    I'd quit Facebook, otherwise.

    Thanks for the heads-up on the deletion/deactivation, I'll point people here whenever I hear that someone wants to delete their account. :)
  • webomatica · 1 year ago
    I do agree there is an opportunity for a competitor. Facebook is certainly the epitome of a walled garden if ever there was one.
  • Kosmoproleten · 1 year ago
    @ Ruth: thanks for the advices. First i tried to delete my account, but it didn't work out, so after your help i managed to do it properly. Thanks best wishes from berlin/GER
  • Barbecue Master · 7 months ago
    Thanks a lot, I just deactivated my account, then thought: there's probably more to this, since I can reactivate it. So I googled REALLY deactivate facebook account, and luckily found this explanation, witch I followed. Now though the format of the website has changed, and the delete option is even HARDER to delete. I had to search deleting, and humourously enough, it was the top searched thing. Then "do you want to delete your face book account" was found only under some irrelevant superficial heading as some reason why you might. Bloodyy dumb, but now it's done, I just have to wait 14 days.
  • Joan · 6 months ago
    Itried to delete my account on facebook,tried for 2 hours,can't find delete. i copied your page & printed it .
  • Nina · 4 months ago
    Hello,

    I am making a facebook for the company I work for. I orginally just made a regular facebook page, but later realized that I need to make a business page for them. I tried to deactivate the account so that I could use the same email for the business account. Facebook will not let me do this because the email was used on the original account that I have deactivated.

    Any thoughts???
  • Jake · 2 months ago
    I actually like that you have both options. I think that "delete" should require multiple steps, to prevent people from accidentally erasing a lot of information unless they're absolutely sure. It's kind of like the "trash" or "recycle bin" on your computer. Of course, I'm sure most of you disagree with me. But what's clear is that if you really want to delete everything, it's not exactly difficult and you don't have to write them to start the process.

    Finally, those bemoaning the lack of competition: Facebook does have competition. MySpace, Friendster, Orkut, are just some of them. And Facebook is more popular for many reasons, one of which is its privacy and security. Some people may still be unsatisfied, but the reality is that Facebook has done better at these things than the runners-up. That said, it's your choice not to be on Facebook. I'm just not sure others are going to do a better job anytime soon.
  • Colin · 2 months ago
    FB isn't for me - I'm not interested in 'networking' and I'm not looking for internet 'friends' in a big way, so I recently deactivated my account. You post is most helpful and thanks for drawing my attention to the 'delete' option - I may exercise this, but haven't quite made up my mind.