Member asking to have account deleted

[Reverie]

What would you do if a member asked to have their account deleted? No real reason other than they just no longer want to be a member of your forum? Would you respect their request and do it, or would you keep their account as a registered member?

I would also consider the scenario of what if this person was getting hired somewhere and didn't want their posts public. This would make for an interesting scenario as well.

 

[Arantor]

Since 2018 this is a legal requirement in the EU under the GDPR to permit. You aren't required to delete their posts but their personal data - such as email address, potentially sure.

 

[Ravenfreak]

I don't have a problem deleting a member's account if they ask to. After all it's their account at the end of the day.

 

[Cory]

I don't necessarily like when members ask to have their account deleted, but when they have a good reason, I'll generally delete it. Only one person that I can recall has asked for me to delete their account on my forum for privacy reasons and I complied.

 

[Cedric]

We had one person so far to request this, which was a bit odd to me. But I’m sure he had his reasoning to request it. His content was not deleted, but there wasn’t much content anyway. In any case, if a member requests this, you ought to comply the request due to GDPR.

 

[Kyng]

Yes, I do: ultimately, it is their account. Although, I have noticed people often request it in the heat of the moment - so, if they're doing it in response to ongoing drama, I'll generally leave it a few days to give them a chance to cool off, and decide whether or not they really want their account to be deleted.

(I will note that this is still GDPR-compliant: the legislation only requires you to comply with these requests within 28 days!)

 

[Tracy]

Yes, I do: ultimately, it is their account. Although, I have noticed people often request it in the heat of the moment - so, if they're doing it in response to ongoing drama, I'll generally leave it a few days to give them a chance to cool off, and decide whether or not they really want their account to be deleted.

I have it written into the TOS that their account will be deleted after a 14 day period.

 

[Paul]

On Proboards, you can delete your own account so doubt I'd ever be asked this. Plus if I refused, they could easily go to Proboards support and request it.

 

[kensonplays]

If they request an account deletion, I let them know personal data will be removed but posts they've made will be anonymised so it doesn't break the flow of threads.

 

[Joeychgo]

What would you do if a member asked to have their account deleted? No real reason other than they just no longer want to be a member of your forum? Would you respect their request and do it, or would you keep their account as a registered member?

I generally try to discourage them - but I will if they persist. Their posts become property of "deleted member number #####"

 

[Tracy]

I generally try to discourage them - but I will if they persist. Their posts become property of "deleted member number #####"

One of which I proudly wear over at TAZ.

 

[Reverie]

True - having a conversation vs just deleting would also be a good question in this scenario. I think asking why, and finding out the reason would be one of my first things because I would honestly be curious, but of course I would want to know if it was fixable.

 

[Joeychgo]

True - having a conversation vs just deleting would also be a good question in this scenario. I think asking why, and finding out the reason would be one of my first things because I would honestly be curious, but of course I would want to know if it was fixable.

Which is what I usually do. In fact, I remember one time a user explained to me they didnt want to be tracked by their ex wife - and it turned out just changing their username was good enough to satisfy that.

 

[SDL]

I’ve not had this request before but as I’m based in the UK, I have to comply with GDPR. Is there an option in XF to keep posts for deleted accounts? If not, I’d just remove all personal data and change the username to something random.

 

[Cedric]

I’ve not had this request before but as I’m based in the UK, I have to comply with GDPR. Is there an option in XF to keep posts for deleted accounts? If not, I’d just remove all personal data and change the username to something random.

It changes their name to Deleted Member #randomnumber (or whichever you have it set to).

 

[SDL]

It changes their name to Deleted Member #randomnumber (or whichever you have it set to).

That’s okay then, I’d just agree to the request once I’ve spoken to them to make sure that’s what they really want.

 

[veloman]

I had a little think about this, and I wonder if just deleting the username and personally identifiable account information would be enough for GDPR compliance. After all, if any of their posts contain private information - even hints - or they've posted personal pictures then surely that would also fall under the GDPR regs. In which case, deleting everything would be the quickest and easiest option for large accounts.

 

[kensonplays]

I had a little think about this, and I wonder if just deleting the username and personally identifiable account information would be enough for GDPR compliance. After all, if any of their posts contain private information - even hints - or they've posted personal pictures then surely that would also fall under the GDPR regs. In which case, deleting everything would be the quickest and easiest option for large accounts.

That may be true, but it could break a lot of possible flow of content in other threads. So if its at all possible, I would DM them, asking them to remove personal info in their posts before anonymising the rest of their posts.

 

[Tracy]

In which case, deleting everything would be the quickest and easiest option for large accounts.

And would also kill some discussions on a site... a reasonable person would assume that once you put that information out into the public... it's no longer personal, but public information.
If that user is that concerned... they can do a little work themselves before requesting deletion and ask for specific posts to be edited to remove any PI.

 

[SDL]

And would also kill some discussions on a site... a reasonable person would assume that once you put that information out into the public... it's no longer personal, but public information.
If that user is that concerned... they can do a little work themselves before requesting deletion and ask for specific posts to be edited to remove any PI.

I agree with this, you don’t want to ruin the flow of conversations. Obviously some people have legit safety reasons but if they were in that situation, they’d probably edit it out themselves if they have the option or report it to have a mod edit it out. You’d think so anyway!