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I know that there's a way to suspend the Facebook account and it should be removed after 2 weeks.

However I would like to immediately and definitively remove my account, so that in their servers would no longer be any reference to me. In many countries that have privacy laws, companies are forced by law to provide a full opt-out option.

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  • 1
    Could this be related to webapps.stackexchange.com/questions/1/…
    – Julius A
    Commented Jul 8, 2010 at 10:25
  • @Jangwenyi: no, I ask a way to immediately and definitively remove the account, perhaps by trying to enforce privacy laws.
    – Wizard79
    Commented Jul 8, 2010 at 10:26
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    I don't think US privacy laws demand the direct deletion (and Facebook is always subject to US laws)
    – neo
    Commented Jul 8, 2010 at 10:28
  • @neo: can you add that useful information as a full answer?
    – Wizard79
    Commented Jul 8, 2010 at 10:39
  • There is going to be an inherent delay, and they have to be careful what they promise so that they don't have to go scrubbing off-site backup tapes. So there will be some delay, and 2 weeks (or even a month) is reasonable to cover for backup issues.
    – Michael Ekstrand
    Commented Jul 9, 2010 at 2:56

5 Answers 5

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Short answer : you can't.

Long answer : just remove all the information you have on your account, change privacy settings to the lowest possible. This article explains how to remove your account : http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2010/06/11/how-to-permanently-delete-your-account-on-popular-websites/

But be warned that it is not immediately removed (they say at least 14 days).

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They don't allow you to delete it immediately as this would be a security risk. Imagine the damage someone could do with a bunch of facebook passwords and the facility to immediately delete. You can delete your account, but it emails you, warns you, and generally gives you a reasonable amount of time to stop the deletion.

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    this seems more an excuse to postpone the removal... the 2 weeks delay is unreasonable to me.
    – Wizard79
    Commented Jul 8, 2010 at 10:46
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I don't think US privacy laws demand the direct deletion (and Facebook is always subject to US laws). Even more strict most-EU privacy laws give a timeframe of one or two weeks for deletion.

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You can delete it permanently (different from suspension/deactivation) here: http://www.facebook.com/help/?faq=12271 - see the link at the end of the text.

However, I don't know if it's immediate.

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Here's a direct link the page that will delete your account all together. http://www.facebook.com/help/contact.php?show_form=delete_account

It does however give you two weeks to reactivate your account. If after two weeks you haven't signed back into Facebook, it will delete your account permanently.

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