didn't i write this a year ago?

FROM THE EDITORS
FOREVER IN YOUR FACE
By Paul Katz , Sr. Editor, Media/Entertainment/Technology

We all know that breaking up is hard to do. Indeed, some users of the popular social networking site Facebook recently found out that when an online love affair fades, severing the ties that bind is not so easy.

While other soc net sites like MySpace offer simple opt-out features to remove personal information, unhappy Facebookers discovered that deactivating an account kept personal info on the company servers unless they laboriously deleted the profile line by line. A rep for Facebook told the New York Times that the reasoning behind the information lockdown was consumer-friendly: “Deactivated accounts mean that a user can reactivate at any time and their information will be available again just as they left it” (2.11.08).

But many of the 64 million Facebook users weren’t buying it. And the media and blogosphere backlash was fast and fierce, leading to the creation of (irony alert!) a 7,000-member Facebook group titled “How to permanently delete your Facebook account.” In response to the online outcry, Facebook recently rejiggered its policy to make it simpler — but not yet simple — to make a permanent escape by sending an email to customer service.

The lesson? Net-savvy consumers crave access and control. Companies ignoring that desire could find their relationship with users on the fast track to heartbreak.