About 16.9 million results were generated in a Google search, where in Facebook users were searching for the phrase “how to quit Facebook” and nearly 15.9 million links resulted in “how do I delete my Facebook account?”
Facebook privacy concerns have driven lot of users getting inquisitive about the social networking site’s parting policies. This probably would work as a good eye opener for the developers of Facebook to revise their policies and hopefully would be much more concerned about the account privacy settings which the users are facing problems to manage.
Apparently, Facebook users are deleting their account as they are taking too much time in managing the account than using it.
Many eminent industry names have disconnected their ties with Facebook. Matt Cutts, Google’s Webspam Chief has deactivated his Facebook ties on April 22, according to comments he made on Twitter. “I just deactivated my Facebook account using the guide [here]. Not hard to do & you can still revive it later,” he wrote. “It was really useful. I wasn’t expecting the FB guilt trip + dynamic “don’t go” box + password request + captcha though.”
Similarly, Peter Rojas, Gizmodo and Engadget founder, and co-founder of technology blog gdgt tweeted about his decision to cut his Facebook ties. “I was spending more time managing my account than actually using my account,” he toldABCNews.com. “Having to constantly monitor the privacy settings was way too complicated. You can never be sure if you actually caught everything.”
Facebook offers users two options: Deactivate or delete. According to Facebook, with deactivation which is found under Account Settings, accounts are suspended and profile information is no longer available on Facebook but the site saves the information in case the user wishes to return to the social networking site.
Deactivated users do not show up on community pages, and tagged photographs are de-tagged. Additionally, status updates from the user’s page are taken down and names on friends’ walls are no longer clickable. Users can keep their accounts deactivated for an infinite amount of time.
User who wishes to completely bid adieu to Facebook can opt for the Delete option. This can be done by visiting the Help Center and searching for “delete account.” To prevent spontaneous cut off Facebook waits 14 days to delete the account. Copies of some materials may be kept for “technical reasons,” according to Facebook.
The Facebook spokesperson stated, “Because deletion is irreversible, this allows people who mistakenly submitted a request to let us know so we can cancel it.”
