Account deletion request
• 218 words • 2 min • updated
There is a fact that is not usually much publicized about accounts in the web: in general, if a given web service doesn’t have a delete button, you can instead request manually the deletion of your account, by e-mailing the administration of the service. Usually the e-mail you want to contact is localized somewhere on the ‘contact’ or ‘about’ page of the service, or even in the homepage. If not, you can try to make educated guesses:
Through the last months I occasionally deleted some of my accounts and I confirm that this method usually works all the time. (Bias: )Well, at least if you subscribed to services with good admin/policies in the first place… But really, even when my account couldn’t be deleted for…er…bad design in the database, I got nice replies from real people (not robots :-P (yet)). There are a few exceptions for this. One is when it isn’t an advantage for the service to have you gone. Example? Facebook. You can only deactivate your account; there is no option to permanently delete it. And don’t you even try to contact Zuckerberg…other exceptions I have yet to experience. If you have any good (or bad) experience about account deletion requests, don’t hesitate to share it in the comments. Have a nice day.