tried to delete my accounts on 12 apps over last some months. only 3 actually deleted.
What they're not telling you: The Account You Think You Deleted Is Still Collecting Your Data Eight of twelve apps refused to actually delete user accounts when requested, according to a detailed audit conducted by a privacy-focused Reddit user documenting systematic non-compliance with basic data removal protocols across consumer applications. The user selected twelve applications unused for six or more months and attempted account deletion across all platforms. Three apps provided functional deletion mechanisms.
What the Documents Show
Four apps generated confirmation emails requesting verification of the deletion request; the user clicked affirmative responses, yet remained logged into the applications the following day, with no deletion processed. Two apps offered no self-service deletion pathway and required users to contact support staff via email. Two additional apps contained no deletion functionality anywhere within their interface or documentation. One app deleted what users would recognize as their "account" while retaining the underlying user data—a distinction that matters significantly under data retention law. This outcome maps directly onto corporate data retention practices that persist across the consumer software industry.
Follow the Money
When a user account exists passively—generating no engagement, no advertising revenue, no transaction data—the marginal cost to a company of maintaining that account approaches zero. Server storage is commodity infrastructure. The asset value lies in the retained dataset itself. The distinction between account deletion and data deletion functions as a structural feature across platforms. An account deletion button satisfies user expectations and casual interface audits. Data deletion—the actual removal of email addresses, behavioral logs, device identifiers, and interaction history from company servers—operates separately from what users perceive as a completed action.
What Else We Know
The user in this case discovered this gap through empirical testing: logging back in after supposedly completing deletion. The Federal Trade Commission issued guidance in 2013 and again in 2016 on reasonable security practices and disposal of consumer information. The FTC has conducted enforcement actions against specific companies—Amazon, for instance, in 2023—for failure to delete consumer data after account termination. However, the FTC operates through complaint-driven investigations and consent decrees negotiated on a company-by-company basis. No federal statute mandates standardized account deletion protocols. The European Union's General Data Protection Regulation contains explicit deletion rights codified in Article 17, establishing "the right to be forgotten" with narrow exceptions for legal compliance and legitimate business interests.
The pattern this reveals is that consumer platforms operate under no enforceable legal obligation to actually delete data when users request deletion, and they have structured their interfaces to make this non-compliance invisible.
What I find striking is that this isn't a glitch or a privacy violation prosecutable under existing law—it's baseline corporate practice. Amazon, Meta, Google, and dozens of smaller platforms have simply determined that the probability-weighted cost of ignoring deletion requests falls below the cost of implementing them. The FTC can conduct enforcement actions, but only after the fact, only against specific companies, and only to the extent they can prove actual harm. No prior restraint exists.
The institutional failure here runs deeper than any single company. Congress has not legislated mandatory deletion standards. State attorneys general rarely coordinate on this issue. The FTC works within statutory limits written before mobile applications existed. This creates a regulatory vacuum that companies rationally exploit.
What readers should demand is clear: federal legislation establishing enforceable account deletion timelines with penalties scaled to revenue, modeled on GDPR Article 17. Until deletion becomes legally mandatory with real consequences for non-compliance, platforms will continue to design interfaces that delete accounts while retaining data. The user who tested twelve apps discovered not a collection of accidents, but a coordinated industry standard.
Primary Sources
- Source: r/privacy
- Category: Tech & Privacy
- Cross-reference independently — don't take our word for it.
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