By Jon Fingas, Engadget
You may be determined to delete Facebook from your life after the Cambridge Analytica scandal and hacking reports, but the company wants to give you extra time for a change of heart. A spokesperson for the social site has confirmed to The Verge
that it expanded the account deletion grace period from 14 to 30 days,
giving you up to a whole month to revive your presence. According to
Facebook, people have tried to sign into deleted accounts after 14 days.
This offers an opportunity to make a "fully informed choice," the
spokesperson said.
While the extension does offer some added
flexibility, there's likely a very pragmatic reason behind it: the
longer you have to restore your account, the more likely you are to come
back. People who deleted their accounts in a moment of outrage (say,
after a privacy breach) might not feel like they have to commit to that
decision knowing their data will still be waiting for them weeks later.
There is a downside. If you are
bent on deleting your account, Facebook won't truly scrub your data for
another two weeks beyond its previous grace period. You're not very
likely to see a breach during that interval, but it could be frustrating
if you wanted to wash your hands of the service.
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