Account Deletion - Legal Issues

[webcosmo]

Members of a forum might ask their account be deleted.

Is there any legal obligation that forum owners have to provide such options or perform it manually?

[Zachery]

Where does the server reside, where are you from?

I would hazzard a guess that the laws that are apliciable likely depend on where your server and you reside.

[birdie]

As far as I know, there is no legal obligations to delete a users account.

[webcosmo]

Where does the server reside, where are you from?

I would hazzard a guess that the laws that are apliciable likely depend on where your server and you reside.

i am in Boston, usa.
server is in texas.

its probably would be safe if i knew the applicable laws here.
i am not sure whats the law here in Boston. but some big sites like facebook etc offer account deletion; i would assume thats for a reason.

[Trevor Hannant]

That's probably more because they span various countries with differing laws. It is something we are going to add:

http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php/361372-What-s-To-Come-For-vBulletin-Part-II

User can self-delete their profile/account

[Mark.B]

I understand that Germany requires the ability to do this, unless I have it wrong.

I don't think it has to be automated, I think it's just that if a user asks to be deleted, it has to be done.

Certainly UK based sites do not require this, and indeed I would answer "No".

[punchbowl]

I just empty out their profile and change their password to something random. Generally people do this because they want all their posts deleted and to cause disruption. I've found the previous steps mitigate that disruption. I have a usertitle 'Retired' for these cranks.

[Trevor Hannant]

I understand that Germany requires the ability to do this, unless I have it wrong.

Correct. The german version has this added manually before each release as I understand it.