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If you visit the account section of Facebook you are offered only theopportunity to “deactivate”. This merely hides your public profile until younext log in. It’s a useful option if you are likely to return. To deleteyour details permanently you must first unearth the anonymous-lookingcustomer service form that is hidden away at tinyurl.com/2xv52v.
When completing this form tell Facebook in both the subject and the messagefields that you wish to have your account deleted. To check if this has beendone properly either create a fake Facebook account or ask a friend tosearch for your details a few days later
The Times Article:
http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/
tech_and_web/the_web/article3553216.ece
Could the party be over for the big social networks such as Facebook, MySpaceand Bebo? Last month it emerged Facebook had suffered a 5% drop in memberssince December, according to Nielsen Online, the web analyst.
Potentially more damaging, though, is that the average amount of time usersspent tinkering on all three of the big networks has also fallen in theperiod from last November to January 2008 compared with the three monthsprior to that. And in the case of Bebo, which was bought last week by AOLfor £425m, this drop was by 25%.
Quote:
In response to this kind of pressure, Facebook has since created a customerservice form that users can fill in to request full deletion. Wallin toldThe Sunday Times that this new form was “a decent first step, but it’shidden deep in the help pages. The option to delete yourself should beavailable right next to the ‘deactivate’ button on the website. And why aform? You shouldn’t need to explain yourself”.
He’s right, of course, and I only found this form at all because Wallinprovides a link on his Facebook page (see tinyurl.com/2pe3fw).
When I tried to delete the fictional Ian Gear’s account by filling in theform, it took several days – and this account had only a few details toremove. Wallin insists that despite a few teething problems the process doesnow work. “Your complete profile is removed without a trace. The only thingsthat are left are personal messages you’ve sent to other Facebook members ifthey still have them in their inbox.”
Facebook says it takes seriously its responsibility for holding people’s dataand is in compliance with key tenets of European Union law. The reality,though, is that the company is in talks with the ICO over the practicalitiesof this and there is a strong possibility that by uploading your personaldata to Facebook you kiss goodbye to any legal rights to have them deletedlater.
As a US-based company it is unclear whether Facebook has to comply with EU orUK data-protection laws, which require all personal data to be destroyedafter the purpose they are used for is completed.
Facebook does participate in the privacy programme operated by the US-basedTruste, a self-regulated body that deals with oversights arising from suchmatters, and the Safe Harbor initiative – an exemption that allowsmultinational firms to transfer data about EU-based employees to the US.
This is not good enough, according to Yaman Akdeniz, director of Cyber-Rights &Cyber-Liberties, a UK-based pressure group, and a law lecturer at LeedsUniversity. “Although the ICO has good intentions, this falls short of legalcompliance as Facebook is currently not listed as a data controller withinthe UK – and as it has 8.5m British users it should be.”
The ICO confirmed it has not received a formal application (a process known asnotification) from Facebook to be an authorised data controller, despiteverbal assurances from the company that it is in the process of doing so.
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