Facebook Is The Hotel California Of The Net

Last month, I deleted my Facebook account. After I "deleted" my account, there was a message telling me I could reinstate the account at any time by signing in as usual. What??!!! How exactly is that "deleting" my account? Apparently Facebook prefers to keep your information even after you have chosen to delete your account.

I found this to be very annoying and apparently, I am not the only one. Boston.com writes "Facebook is forever, some users complain":

"Some users have discovered it is nearly impossible to remove themselves entirely from Facebook.com, setting off a fresh round of concern over the social network's use of personal data.

While the website offers the option to deactivate an account, Facebook servers keep copies of the information indefinitely. Many users who have requested that their accounts be deleted have not succeeded in erasing their records.

"It's like the Hotel California," said Nipon Das, 34, a director at a biotechnology consulting firm in Manhattan. "You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave."

I Deleted MySpace And Facebook Accounts!

I participated in International Delete Your Myspace account today. In fact, I took it one step further and also deleted my Facebook account! I found both sites to be more annoying than useful anyway.

I had no problems at all when I deleted my Myspace account. However, Simon Owens (the blogger that started this rally) has reported some issues involved with the account deletions. He has provided some step by step instructions in case you encounter any of those issues.

When I deleted my account on Myspace, it warned me that all information would be lost and could not be retrieved once deleted. Good! That is what I want. BUT, when I deleted my account on Facebook, the message was quite different.

It told me I could reinstate the account at any time by signing in as usual. What??!!! How exactly is that "deleting" my account? Apparently Facebook prefers to keep your information even after you have chosen to delete your account. At least I will stop getting all of those annoying fun wall pokes or whatever it is that Facebook does! This is my profile page on Flugpo, which is my social network of choice.

Facebook Conspiracy?

I would like to thank our reader Mandy for pointing out this link. She had read my post International Delete Your MySpace Account and commented how Facebook was worth deleting too. This is a video about how Facebook shares your information and shows the connections all the way to the top. You will be surprised at what you hear.

I am going to delete my MySpace AND my Facebook account. I have never liked either of them and never use them. I prefer the simplicity and the safety that Flugpo offers.