Comments on: Deleting Accounts - Not Easy

By: Carsten PÃ¶tter

Carsten PÃ¶tter — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 21:58:43 +0000

The internet is still a rather new medium and people will have to learn how to deal with it. A lot of information will be available for years, so it is a good idea to think about what to post online (images, comments, blog posts,…). Though Google doesn’t know everything about your online life.

By: Jen

Jen — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 20:56:01 +0000

Yeah, I’m really upset that I can’t delete my accounts. Not only that, but google has cached all of them so now, anyone can search and know about what I’m doing online and there’s nothing I can do about it. Fuck, this comment will probably get cached too.

By: Carsten PÃ¶tter

Carsten PÃ¶tter — Sat, 29 Sep 2007 13:06:19 +0000

Ha, I don’t have a Digg account.

By: Trok

Trok — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 22:33:09 +0000

Try Digg. You have to send them an email and after that, your account is not deleted, it’s simply “suspended”. What’s up with that? If I want out, I want out!

By: Carsten PÃ¶tter

Carsten PÃ¶tter — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 12:34:21 +0000

Yes, would be interesting how it works with other services.

By: Matthias

Matthias — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 09:37:31 +0000

Fortunately, I’m not using any of the services you mentioned, but I am registered with a plethora of others. I’m already afraid of the day when I will sit down and try to delete a great part of my accounts. Planning to do so within the next months; I’ll try to remember to blog about my experience.

By: Carsten PÃ¶tter

Carsten PÃ¶tter — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 18:16:44 +0000

Pownce is difficult as well? Well, I’ll keep it for while, I guess.

And yes, it’s a bad user experience if you can’t delete an account easily. Unfortunately you just realise it, after registering an account.

By: JVXP

JVXP — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 18:11:20 +0000

Yeah, came across deleting some accounts I don’t use or just tried and cancelling an account is a nightmare these days. Either they want to collect your info or they just need it for their “statistics”. It’s not that they need it to raise funds or VC, they won’t even make revenues from the ads as most people visit the site only for a few days and then never again. And most people don’t even bother deleting accounts as they are not so much concerned about it.

Try reading the TOS of many sites and many vaugley describe that you might cancel the service, but when it comes to actually doing it there ist NO Button or at least an application form for deletion. Worst was an local “Networking Site” (KL.eins.de) which ignored my request COMPLETLEY!! Even after trying a few times. It’s not myspace or some startup where they are bombarded with mails from everyone. It is a simple procedure in their database. Nothing less.

Tried cancelling Pownce? You can’t unless you write an E-Mail.

It’s a 50/50 situation as most sites do actually provide the function, but still, as a user you should decide what you want to do at most of the sites that tell you they want “user generated content” but just don’t really care about the user himself.