It appears that Facebook is finally getting the picture that when you want off the social networking service, you really want off. It appears that they’re finally getting the point — somewhat.

One of privacy advocates biggest gripes with Facebook is the fact that once you’re on the service, you’re pretty much locked in the service for life. That’s because instead of letting users delete their accounts directly, you could only “deactivate.”

(To be fair, there is a delete process in place currently for all users, but it was somewhat cumbersome.)

What this does is put the account in limbo — not deleting it, but making it invisible. If at a point in time you decide to come back, you simply reactivate and its like nothing ever changed.

The company has confirmed that is now testing a new feature called “Delete Account,” which is exactly what it says. Once you delete, everythings gone. As Brad McCarty at The Next Web points out however, Facebook’s terms of service still allow for the company to hold this information as it sees fit.

I’ll give Facebook the benefit of the doubt and say that it probably doesn’t want to hold this information, given doing so would likely create yet another negative backlash against the company who has already been raked over the coals for its actions.

Let’s hope I’m right.

 
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