HAMBURG: It only takes a few clicks to set up a profile in a social network. Getting rid of a profile is altogether more difficult. Facebook and its ilk will do everything in their power to hold on to members, even if it means playing with your emotions.
'It was a big change for my friends,' says Frauke Luepke-Narberhaus. As part of a personal experiment, this Hamburg native got rid of all her accounts with social networks.
Saying goodbye wasn't hard for the 27-year-old: 'After all, there is still email and mobiles.' The bigger problem was deregistering. 'The exit was emotionally dramatized. Plus, it's well hidden.'
Anyone who wants to cut ties to a social network has some hurdles ahead of him.
Patrick Wassel, who is with a working group on social media with the German Federal Association of Digital Business, says there are good reasons to deactivate or delete a profile. Anyone taking his first steps into the professional world might no longer want his school-time exploits available online, for example.
But anyone tired of being in a social network can delete his profile – and has the right to do so – says Munich-based lawyer Jan Christian Seevogel.
That's because using personal data requires the active approval of anyone affected by the dissemination of that data. Users give that permission when they register with a social network.
But that data has to be deleted as soon as there is no justification for its continued storage.
'The permission of the user for data use generally ends with the deactivation of the account, which is the same as cancellation of the user contract with the social network,' says Seevogel, who runs his own social media platform on legal topics.
There shouldn't be any technical hurdles to canceling an account, says Carsten Ulbricht, another German lawyer who specializes in internet questions. Users also should be told at registration about their right to revoke permissions for the use of personal data.
But the networks don't make it easy. StudiVZ, a popular German network, warns you that 'all your friends will miss you – and so will we' if one tries to leave. The message comes along with the image of a crying woman.
To make it even more challenging, directions for leaving are well hidden by most networks, although they all do have a page explaining the way to quit. There are also other websites out there devoted entirely to telling people how to quit, with stories from those who have already taken the plunge.
Facebook, the market leader, makes a distinction between canceling and deactivating an account. But once you delete your data, it can never be summoned up again. However, the company notes that it can take 14 days for the entire cancellation process to complete.
Deactivation, on the other hand, simply freezes the account in place and makes it invisible ? until that is, you happen to decide to log back in, in which case all functions are automatically activated again.
For many people, particularly younger people, belonging to an online network is of major importance and forms a key link to one's peer group, says Stefan Drewes, chairman of the school psychology group with the German Professional Association of Psychologists.
Thus, getting out of a social network shouldn't be a step taken without careful consideration or in a moment of rage over changes in data privacy guidelines. Taking the plunge could suddenly mean you're cut off from your entire social circle, creating isolation.
