# Shouldn't users be able to delete their accounts whenever they want?

**URL:** <https://meta.discourse.org/t/shouldnt-users-be-able-to-delete-their-accounts-whenever-they-want/215601>\
**Category:** Feature\
**Created:** [January 21, 2022, 9:14pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/shouldnt-users-be-able-to-delete-their-accounts-whenever-they-want/215601 "2022-01-21T21:14:21Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 6

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**Author:** ![JimPas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/jimpas/32/148179_2.png) [@JimPas](https://meta.discourse.org/u/JimPas)\
**Post date:** [January 21, 2022, 10:47pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/shouldnt-users-be-able-to-delete-their-accounts-whenever-they-want/215601/6 "2022-01-21T22:47:20Z")

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> [@blueslimee](#):
>
> The website no longer needs their data for the original reason they collected or used it for (in this case, if they don’t use the website anymore);

There is a difference between “collected data” by a website and “voluntarily provided data” by a user such as in a conversation’s posts/replies. Simply deleting every post a user ever made would render each topic incoherent - like ripping random pages out of a novel. A user’s account can be anonymized so discussions remain flowing and coherent, and the user’s identifying data (real name, email address, account activity, etc.) can then be deleted.

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