Why the Internet is Bullsh*t – Info Gadgets

And How Hard it is to Delete a F*cking Account

I expected it with Facebook. When I gave the behemoth my notice of termination. But with other sites, not as much. Some I just pressed delete on my own and it all went away. Imagine that. I actually had control over my own profile. Novel.

It hasn’t been that easy with Houzz, a website and online community about architecture, interior design and decorating, landscape design and home improvement. I barely even used this site and I am currently involved in the Da Vinci code just to permanently delete my account.

What You Can’t Do

You can’t just delete your account yourself. And your data. Maybe because I had a pro membership. I don’t know why. Probably for branding when I was real estate. But again, I barely ever used Houzz. And now I can’t get rid of it.

I may have had an option to deactivate, but I didn’t want to do that. I wanted to permanently delete my account. I don’t even know how they are using my information, but I know they are. And I am trying to clean up the Internet trappings that I have left everywhere.

What You Have To Do

I had to send an email to Privacy. So I did. I think it was pretty clear and straight forward.

Permanently. Delete. My. Account. Please and thank you.

The Initial Response

One week later I got a response. There is no way to do it myself and it took them one week to even acknowledge that I just wanted some elf to press a button and remove all of my information.

So I confirmed right away.

The Next Level of Client Disengagement and Internet Bullsh*t

This was their response to my clear request to permanently delete my account.

What. The. Actual. F*ck.

“We have deactivated your account.”

I find it unlikely that this was a mistake, rather that this is part of the protocol. Like how insurance companies deny things just to see if someone will submit again. They deactivated instead of permanently deleting my account. My guess is that although my account is deactivated and out of view, my data can still be used. No thanks.

So…

And then…

Hold Up Now

Issues I found with this, which I sent back as my “questions in the meantime”:

1. Why does it take me two times to get your working on my first request?
2. Why is there such a volume of requests to permanently delete profiles?
3. What has to be done to delete my account besides press a button?
4. How will my information be used in the interim?

I’m waiting on an answer now. And I’m not holding my breath.

This is Why the Internet is Bullsh*t

If I can’t get Houzz to delete my account for 90 days because they are so backed up in the delete account section, what does that say about the rest of the Internet? And how do we ever really know if they’ve scrubbed our data out of their system?

But there we’ll go tomorrow. Signing up for an account on a new site. When we really “need” something else to spend our time doing online. And thinking it won’t be a big deal if we want to delete our account. Just a couple button clicks, right?

Think again. Why would it be that easy? This is the Internet. It’s all about what they can take from us while we are online. And they will. And it’s bullsh*t.