Facebook change makes killing accounts easier

It's easier to get away, but is it simple enough?

As if to prove that it's not just another money-grabbing empire that cares not a jot for its customers, Facebook has responded to the recent furore about immortal 'zombie' accounts by making it easier to escape the social-networking site.

The company has now added a paragraph to its help pages explaining that users wishing to leave could simply fill out a form asking its support desk for a swift extermination. The move means an end to the tedious process of manually deleting everything associated with an account.

Where's the button?

Still, having to send an email to Facebook is far from the big, red 'delete' button we were hoping for. Magnus Wallin, who started a group called 'How to permanently delete your Facebook account', clearly agrees.

He told the IHT: "Information on how to do it is great. But it should be really easily available. Not at the bottom of the help pages. And a 'form' sounds like you have to explain yourself. A regular delete button would be preferable, in my opinion."

More changes possible

Facebook's director of user experience explained that could still happen. Katie Geminder said, "We are measuring the effects of the change we made yesterday and if we think more needs to be done to improve the user experience for deleting an account, we'll test different implementations and measure them accordingly."

In other words, if the new measure puts an end to the complaints about data security it will have done its job without making it too easy for users to flee the Facebook party.

J Mark Lytle was an International Editor for TechRadar, based out of Tokyo, who now works as a Script Editor, Consultant at NHK, the Japan Broadcasting Corporation. Writer, multi-platform journalist, all-round editorial and PR consultant with many years' experience as a professional writer, their bylines include CNN, Snap Media and IDG.