Facebook allows you to deactivate your account. But that deactivated account will remain forever on Facebook’s servers and will be reactivated if you sign in again.
Unless you permanently delete it.
So, how do you permanently delete your Facebook account?
There used to be a link to delete an account in Settings or when you deactivated your account (it appeared there after Canada said they would not allow Facebook to operate on its soil unless a user could permanently delete all its info) but you won’t find it now.
It’s still there, but hidden from view.
Here’s how to permanently delete your Facebook account:
1- Log in to Facebook
2- Click on this link or type it in your URL:
http://www.facebook.com/help/contact.php?show_form=delete_account
See the “help/contact” part in the URL? At this point, it is just a deletion request. That’s right, it is still not deleted!
Alternatively, you can click on Help [lower right] – FAQ – I want to delete my account.
You will need to reenter your password to finalize the deletion request (because that’s all it is at this point). Your account will then be deleted after 14 days. If you log back in anytime before the 14 days are over, your account will be “undeleted” and reactivated.
I shudder to think how difficult / impossible it will be to do this in the future…
[ via Stall The Ball ]Facebook mentions in its reply to the Privacy Commissioner of Canada that “This distinction [between deactivation and deletion] will be explained in Facebook’s privacy policy and users will receive a notice about the delete option during the deactivation process.”
Well, as of this writing, there is no [more] mention of any deletion option during the deactivation process.
There’s no guarantee that your Facebook info, though deleted from its servers, won’t be still floating around in Google’s cache. For that, you’ll have to talk to Google.
Related links:
