Despite the fact that users can delete their accounts on social networks, some data remains on the companies' servers. As Ekaterina Edemskaya, an engineer-analyst at Gazinformservice, explained to RIA Novosti, this is due to legal requirements, commercial interests, and technical features of information storage.
According to the legislation of many countries, social networks are obliged to store certain user data for months or even years. This may be required for investigations, litigation, or tax control. In addition, companies use this information to analyze user behavior, improve algorithms, and conduct marketing research.
Social networks operate according to certain legal and commercial rules. In many countries, laws require services to store certain user data for months or even years after an account is deleted. This may be related to the investigation of crimes, user disputes, as well as the need to comply with financial and tax regulations. Therefore, "deleted" data is most often simply moved into the shadows – remaining on the servers, but out of sight.
Modern data centers use multi-level backup, which makes instant data deletion almost impossible. Even after account deactivation, information may be stored in "backups" until the systems are completely cleared. It is important to find out if the user agreement contains information about how long the data will be stored after the account is deleted. If the platform provides the ability to request complete data deletion, then it is worth using this function.
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