I always had a vague notion that when one deletes a post or comment in Facebook that they don't actually delete it. Instead, behind the scenes they simply mark it to not display.
This irked me mildly, as I think they should actually delete it. But I lived with it because... well, I just did.
However, I have just discovered that the new "timeline" interface is displaying all my previously deleted posts. I do not use the timeline myself, but in cases where my friends have adopted it, from what I can tell, any post or comment I made connected to that friend is now displaying within their timeline (and some other places), despite the fact that I have deleted it.
I can be sure these are deleted posts because I delete everything more than a few weeks old. To me, Facebook (or G+ or whoever is the social media du jour) is there to represent my current activities and self. I have absolutely, 100%, no interest in leaving a history there. As a result of what I assume is a bug in the new timeline interface, posts from as far back as two and three years ago are visible.
Since I have now seen first hand that a bug or bad programming (I have sent in a bug report to their customer service) can result in my deleted information being spat out despite my wishes, I am much, much less interested in using Facebook.
I may start making more use of my Google+ account, but...
Does Google also merely hide "deleted" posts, comments, and content, as Facebook does, or do they actually delete it?