Facebook users can now delete their accounts completely after the company added instructions Tuesday to the help page on its Web site.
The social network's actions come days after The New York Times reported that many users were having trouble completely deleting their accounts.
Previously, users could only deactivate a Facebook account, which would remove all public data from the Web site but still kept an archive of personal information on the server. It is now possible to request your account to be deleted through a contact form on the Web site's help page.
However, many users are still reporting that the new method of account deletion is incomplete.
"Users who have requested to be deleted via the recently introduced form are only partly deleted, even though the deletion is confirmed by Facebook staff," Facebook user Magnus Wallin stated in a posting Friday on his Facebook group, "How to permanently delete your facebook account." Wallin's group had more than 10,000 members as of Sunday.
Facebook representatives did not return calls for comment by press time.
According to Facebook's help page, deactivating an account rather than completely deleting it is a convenience measure.
"If you reactivate your account, your profile will be restored in its entirety," the help page stated.
Facebook was previously hesitant to comply with deletion requests, with one user succeeding only after threatening legal action, according to The New York Times.
School of Communication professor Kathryn C. Montgomery said she has always been concerned about Facebook's privacy practices.
"I've been warning my students about Facebook and privacy for years," she said.
Though Montgomery said she was not sure if Facebook was sharing the deactivated account information, she said it was a possibility and stressed that the Web site is turning into a tool for marketers.
"[Social networking Web sites are] basically turning themselves into data mining companies," Montgomery said. "They say they're not selling [your personal information] to third parties. However, they are making your profile available without giving your name to third parties. They don't have to know your specific name to reach you and target you."
The site threatens students' privacy, said Steven Rutman, a freshman in the Kogod School of Business.
"Why should they even share that information in the first place?" he said.
A user has every right to delete his or her information from Facebook, said Andrew Woods, a sophomore in the School of Public Affairs.
"When you get rid of your Facebook, you don't expect it to return," he said.
Other social networking Web sites like MySpace allow users to delete their accounts easily, The Times reported.
Montgomery said she believes Facebook should follow MySpace's example.
"They make it harder to do than it probably should be," she said.
