how to completely delete your facebook profile

(I had moved this post to another blog, but people keep hitting this page from Google, so I added it back to my blog. It was accurate as of August 2007. I may update it to make it current someday. Leave a comment if you want me to.)

A while back, I had wondered whether or not I should remove my Facebook and Myspace profiles. To this day, I have not pulled either one of them, for various reasons. I have finally removed my Facebook profile, so for those interested, I thought I’d share how you can permanently delete your Facebook profile.

Those that use Facebook know that there is a “Deactivate” option, but that does not actually delete your account from the Facebook servers. It removes the account from being shown in Facebook, but the moment you re-enter your email address and password to login to Facebook, your account will be completely restored.

To get to the bottom of this, I emailed Facebook support and found out how to truly delete your account. Here are my email exchanges with Clive:

I noticed that I can deactivate my account. That is not sufficient for
me. I’d like it to be completely deleted. Is that possible?

Thanks.

Tom

Hi Tom,

You can deactivate your account by using the “Deactivate Account” link
on the My Account page. Deactivation removes your account from the
site. If you reactivate your account, your profile will be restored in
its entirety (friends, photos, interests, etc.).

Reactivating the account simply requires that you log in with your email
and password. Let me know if you have any further questions.

Thanks for contacting Facebook,

Clive
Customer Support Representative
Facebook

Clive,

Is there any way to permanently delete my account?

Tom

Hi Tom,

If you deactivate, your account is removed from the site. However, we
save all your profile content (friends, photos, interests, etc.), so if
you want to reactivate sometime, your account will look just the way it
did when you deactivated. If you do want your information completely
wiped from our servers, we can do this for you. However, you need to
remove all profile content before we can do this. Once you have cleared
your account, let us know and we’ll take care of the rest.

Thanks for contacting Facebook,

Clive
Customer Support Representative
Facebook

So there you have it. Delete everything that you have in your profile, everything, and then email Facebook and ask them to permanently remove your profile.

**UPDATE***

You will need to remove every friend, every wall post on your wall, leave each group and network, remove all of the applications and all of your pictures, as well as all mail in your inbox. They don’t make it easy to do all of this, so if you have alot of friends or alot of wall posts, it will take some time. It took me around 45 minutes to remove all of my info, and I don’t think I had much compared to some people I know. When you’ve removed everything, then send customer service an email asking them to remove your profile. If any tidbits are left, they’ll just tell you they can’t delete it until everything has been removed by you, and you’ll have to hunt around to find what’s left.

Also, here is the customer service email, though I’d recommend using the contact form built into Facebook first: comment-info-rt@facebook.com

***JUNE 2010 UPDATE***

Here are the latest instructions on deleting your account, taken from http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=16929680703.

1. Log into Facebook and go to this link: http://www.facebook.com/help/contact.php?show_form=delete_account. Click “Submit” and follow the instructions.

2. Your account will be deactivated for two weeks, and if you DO NOT USE FACEBOOK IN ANY WAY during that period, your account is permanently deleted.

I REPEAT: Your profile isn’t deleted right away! You must NOT log in to, or interact in any other way with Facebook for at least two weeks, as it will cancel the deletion request. That includes NOT logging in to Facebook using any client (like the iPhone app or IM:s like Pidgin), NOT clicking embedded Like-buttons on other websites, NOT logging in to other services using Facebook Connect (like Digg) etc etc.

3. Hey, while you’re at it, delete all your browsing/forms history and cookies as well, to minimize the risk of accidentally using your account!  If you want out – stay out, mmmkay?

This method is official and should be complete, i.e. no need to delete individual photos, comments, messages or items from your profile or anywhere else on Facebook! If you have any concerns whether your stuff is actually deleted (as opposed to being kept somewhere in the deep dungeons of Facbook’s HQ) your best bet is to ask them using email: info@facebook.com.