Deleting
Social Networking Sites
Deleting accounts you've created
on Facebook, MySpace, Twitter,
AOL, and elsewhere on the Web
isn't always easy.
Here are the details on leaving
23 services behind.
Source:
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2342599,00.asp
Date retrieved from source:
March 12, 2009
By:
Eric Griffith
The words "I wish I could quit
you" take on a whole new meaning
when you want out of a
relationship with an
online service. Sure, you
once thought you and
Facebook or
MySpace would be together
forever, but eventually terms of
service change, end-user license
agreements mature, and, well,
you're just not in the same
place anymore.
Sadly, not all Web sites and
social networks are created
equal when it comes to breaking
up. With some, it takes only a
couple of clicks to say
good-bye. If you stop paying,
that goes a long way toward
ending it with a few sites.
Others make you jump through
more hoops than a tiger at the
circus.
No matter what you call it
deleting, canceling, removing,
whatever when you want to be rid
of an online account, you'll
find most sites don't feel
obliged to make it too easy for
you. So we've cut to the chase
as much as possible to give you
the links, the tips, and in the
worst cases, the fax and
phone numbers you need to
sever ties. Did we miss a
service you want out of? Let us
know. And if you've managed to
quit a service not in this
story, be kind and share your
tips.
Social Networks
Classmates.com
Another site linking up you and
your alma mater-mates and
another lawsuit: One user claims
he was told by Classmates that
several people were trying to
contact him. He wasn't able to
find out why-not until he paid.
Then he discovered the actual
truth: No one was trying to find
him, at all. Rather than get
mad,
he got litigious.
Even if you don't feel scammed,
you may feel annoyed-maybe you
hated high school. And college.
Canceling with Classmates is
pretty simple-if you've got the
free account. Those users can
log in and remove themselves
anytime. Visit the
Member Support Email Contact
form, pick a reason you're
leaving, and click Yes. That's
it.
If you've paid-base cost is $15
for three months-you've got a
Gold Membership at
Classmates.com, and that makes
it a little more complicated.
Contact the Member Support Team
and someone will get back to you
in e-mail or via live
Internet chat. Classmates
will dummy the account back down
to free so you can do the
removal. Another method is to
set the account renewal option
to "manual" so that it doesn't
automatically debit your credit
card; instead it automatically
reverts to free when your Gold
Membership runs out.
Can't get satisfaction online?
Classmates.com can be reached at
425-917-5000. I tried it, hit 1
for customer support, then 2 for
a question about the Web site,
and got an operator after 4
minutes. She said she can cancel
any account.
Facebook
Recent issues with the Facebook
terms of service -which would
have given Facebook rights to
everything you post there, for
the remainder of time-had some
users threatening to pull out.
Which is probably why Facebook
recanted on the changes and
suddenly embraced democracy
for its guidelines.
If you're still steamed, you
have a couple of ways to leave
Facebook behind. First is simple
"deactivation." Visit your
Facebook Account page and
click the "deactivate" link at
the bottom. Facebook will make
an attempt to guilt-trip you
into staying by pointing out
just how many of your
social-network friends won't be
able to keep in touch. It even
displays pictures of people
you're in photos with, playing
on your emotions with captions
such as, "Mark will miss you"
and "Wendy will miss you." Sure
they will. Then how come they
never poke me?
Once you've cleared the tears
from your eyes, you'll notice
another message on-screen,
wherein the Facebook Team points
out that you shouldn't
deactivate because of that silly
old terms of service change.
That "was a mistake we have now
corrected." Too much hullabaloo.
Soldier on. You have to provide
a reason to deactivate, whether
you'll be back or not, and you
can also opt out of getting
e-mails from Facebook while
deactivated. That's the trick:
Deactivation is not the same as
deletion. Your account simply
becomes invisible. Your friends
on Facebook will all think you
bailed. However, you have the
option to reactivate it in the
future, without losing any
photos, notes, or pokes.
True deletion of a Facebook
account means losing all of
those-so be sure you have local
copies of photos and notes
before you take this step. You
can't reactivate. Here's the
link to the
Delete My Account page.
Friendster
Yes, Friendster still exists. If
you were an early adopter of
social networks, you may still
have an account there doing
nothing to get you new, real
friends (like those you have on
Facebook!). Time to cancel.
Assuming you can remember your
log-in, do so and click
Settings. Scroll down and find
the Cancel My Account link. On a
new page, you'll find the
Cancellation Form in the middle.
You need to provide your
e-mail address password,
give a reason you're canceling,
and check off the "Yes, I want
to cancel my Friendster account"
box. You can even list what new
social network you've moved to,
just to make Friendster feel
bad. Refresh the window, and if
you were logged in to Friendster
before, you shouldn't be now.
Say "so long" to any data you
may have uploaded, assuming you
can remember what it was.
LinkedIn
It could be argued that LinkedIn
is the most useful social
network around, especially in
this day and age of job
networking. That doesn't mean
you won't want to cancel with
them. In fact, LinkedIn
specifically suggests that if
you have multiple accounts, you
should close one to consolidate.
To close an account, log in,
click Account & Settings at the
top of the page, then click
Close Your Account (under
Personal Information). Give a
reason you're leaving-most sites
want to know what they can
improve, or did wrong- and then
click Continue.
You have time to reinstate your
account, if you regret the
deletion. Contact Customer
Service and confirm your e-mail
address to do so. LinkedIn
doesn't give out a number, but
the link to contact them is on
the bottom of every page. I
found the number anyway:
650-687-3600. When you ask for
customer service, you'll
probably get sent to a
recording.
MySpace
Canceling your MySpace account
is easy-when it works. When it
doesn't, things get a touch
arcane.
Sign in, click the My Account
link, then click Account, scroll
down to the bottom, and click
Cancel Account. Keep in mind,
there is no reactivation. Go
through with the cancellation
and you can't bring back your
account-though you can create a
new account using the same
e-mail address you used before.
That's won't restore your
previous music, pictures, and
blog posts, however.
It should be that simple. But
MySpace has some caveats. First,
the account might remain visible
for a while. Days, even a week,
maybe. After that, if the
MySpace page is still there, you
may safely assume the deletion
didn't go through. Now you need
to e-mail
help@support.myspace.com and ask
for assistance.
Send a "salute" to MySpace
support in the e-mail. That's a
"handwritten sign with the word
MySpace.com and include your
MySpace Friend/Profile ID
number." Hold it up while having
your picture taken. Attach the
digital photo to the e-mail or
at least send MySpace a link to
where the picture can be found
online. This salute may prove
you're you, but that will matter
only if you've got a picture on
your MySpace page for the
support team to compare it with.
MyLife.com (formerly
Reunion.com)
MyLife.com wants to bring people
from previous school classes
together. Unfortunately, it
tends to be aggressively
annoying, with a constant
barrage of e-mails once you sign
up. The earlier incarnation,
Reunion.com, was even the
subject of a lawsuit under a
California anti-spam law (the
suit was dismissed).
If you're not part of the class
action, here's how to get away
from the constant claims of
acquaintances trying to track
you down. It's tricky to find
even in the MyLife.com help
documents, where at one point it
says "delete account" but
there's no actual entry with
that term. It switches to
"remove account" on
the actual help article.
First, you do have the option to
change your e-mail settings so
that you get fewer or no
messages from Reunion.com. But
Reunion/MyLife also claims it
"may take up to 10 days for
changes to take effect." Why on
earth should this remotely be
the case? Supposedly because
"some may have been prepared for
delivery already." That only
fuels the desire to delete the
account. So here are the steps:
Log in, click My Account on the
top right, find the Delete
Account link, and click OK to
confirm. This can't be undone;
you'll lose all mailbox data,
profile info, and photos.
Expect to get
e-mail messages
for a couple of weeks. If the
spam continues after that, call
customer service at
888-704-1900, even on weekends.
Hit 4 for questions about
premium membership. Then 3 to
make changes. You can cancel
both free and premium accounts
through this number. |
