Feb 14th, 2008
Feb 14th, 2008
Social networking site Facebook is quickly becoming a common source of skirmishes. First, the site drew ire for its Beacon program; now, it’s getting flak as more and more users discover it’s ridiculously hard to permanently delete their accounts.
In the past, disenchanted Facebook users had only a deactivation option - an option that included Facebook servers keeping copies of their personal information. A difficult, little-known manual deletion option was also available.
Nipon Das, a business consultant in Manhattan, became the de facto face of a movement demanding that Facebook make it easier to delete accounts. He spent two months trying to delete his account, and in the meantime, continued to receive messages and alerts from the site. A groundswell of support grew, and a Facebook group entitled “How to permanently delete your Facebook account” has grown to include nearly 10,000 members.
In response to the complaints, Facebook updated their Help pags to announce that the easiest way to delete your account is to email the company and make your wishes clear. They announced that they have no plans to introduce a one-step delete account option.
Facebook users are calling for a simple, manual Delete option, and it’s a reasonable request. Users should not have to hunt for instructions on how to permanently delete their account and all their personal information. Good customer service extends to people who want to discontinue using your site, and making is difficult for people to delete their accounts is not the way to help them leave Facebook with fond memories.
Obviously, Facebook has a stake in retaining users and the personal information they provide to the site. But at some point, they need to consider the desires of their users. It’s extremely common for Internet users to pare down the number of social networking sites they use, or to give up online social networking entirely. And as Web users have the expectation that they can quite sites as easily as they can join them, Facebook needs to get with the program.
