out with the old, in with...

Two days ago, I decided to delete my facebook account. Delete, as in wipe all pertinent information off facebook's servers and forget my profile existed. Having recently read Steve Mansour's 2504 steps to closing your facebook account (http://www.stevenmansour.com/), I was a bit worried at what might follow.

Here's a bit of quick background information...I deactivated my facebook account some months ago (see previous post) because I didn't like how our social lives were moving online. At that point I had no idea if you could delete your account or not, but I figured deactivating it was the safest way to go in the short run. Thinking of what facebook still might be doing with my data (their explanation of keeping it just in case I ever wanted to reactivate seemed to leave something to be desired..) I took the plunge and asked them what must be done to completely erase my profile.

Steve in Montreal wrote that his facebook rep asked him to delete every individual wall post, personal message, picture, comment etc. before they could delete his account itself. My rep (Clive) was a bit more understanding :) Here's a snippet of our email conversation:

Clive: "If you do not think you will use Facebook again and would like your account deleted, let us know, and we will 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."

Me: "I would like you to completely delete my entire account. I understand that I will not be able to reactivate it or access any of its information."

Clive: "We have deleted your profile information and removed your email address from our login database. Please let me know if you have further questions or concerns."

Done. This wasn't at all what I was expecting....I had my heels dug in and was ready for a good argument, yet was pleasantly surprised with the efficiency that facebook came out with on this one. Looks like they're learning.