Facebook, the world’s largest social networking site has over a million users. It was started by Mark Zuckerberg, a harvard university student. It is now bogged down by a lot of privacy concerns. There are many users who are quitting Facebook now.

According to a recent study of 1588 Facebook users, almost two thirds wanted to quit Facebook and about 16% already left because of lack of control over their data.

There are  a lot of concerns about privacy of user data in Facebook. Posts on a user’s profile page are visible to even friends of friends. So, even people who are not on your friends list may chance to see your profile and information on it!  Facebook users are unable to do much with their friends list either. Microsoft co-founder, Bill Gates quit Facebook because of the sheer volume of friend requests. A large number of applications in Facebook, like Farmville, are very addictive. Moreover, all applications have access to your profile  information.

Applications can post to the news feeds on a Facebook user’s profile page, making it visible to the public.Facebook users cannot control who writes on their wall. Many other features are annoying to a large number of Facebook users.

Facebook accounts can be either temporarily or permanently deactivated.

In order to temporarily deactivate your account, follow these instructions:

1. Log into Facebook with your username/email and password.

2. Locate the “Account” link on the top right hand side corner of your page and click on it.

3. Scroll down and select “Deactivate”.

4. You will now be taken to a page that displays a couple of your friends with the message that they will miss you.

5. Next is a questionnaire form citing various reasons to quit. Select the most appropriate reason.

6. Click the  Deactivate button.

7. You will receive a message confirming that your account has been deactivated. You also receive an e-mail confirming the same.

8. Logging on again within 2 weeks would re-activate the account.

Some Facebook users may consider deleting their accounts permanently. They only need to deactivate their accounts and not log in for  two weeks. Their account gets deleted permanently. For further information, you can contact info@facebook.com.