How to remove your Join Diaspora account

On any Diaspora site (‘pod’) you can ‘close’ your account, which unfortunately means some data will remain publicly visible, and other will linger around in their database. This remains somewhat unclear. Judge for yourself:

We delete all of your posts, profile data, as soon as humanly possible. Your comments will hang around, but be associated with your Diaspora ID. You will get signed out and locked out of your account. This will lock your username if you decided to sign back up. Currently, there is no turning back.

What can you do: (1) obfuscate as much as possible (see below), (2) go to your profile, settings, scroll down for the closure link to close your account and (3) if you fear the world enough, contact them personally requesting removal of your data. For example, (3a) file an issue at https://github.com/diaspora/diaspora/issues or (3b) send feedback here: https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups#!forum/diaspora-discuss

Also on the Diaspora development page at Github you can read things are not quite as they should hopefully be: https://github.com/diaspora/diaspora/issues/1823

Helpful Trick: Obfuscate your profile info.

Because most accounts and profiles at Join Diaspora cannot be removed, we suggest you login and change your account and profile information altogether.

Make sure you are logged in to your account on the site and click on the profile or options settings. Locate the fields with your personal info (email, name, address) and fill in generic, random information instead. If you can only select from several fields, change anything personally identifying. If possible, use a homepage/URL field or long text field (such as Description) and put this line in it: https://remove.org/removal-requested. This may encourage webmasters and admins to create an easier removal outlet.

Helpful Trick: Removing online data

Publicly visible text/images often aren’t properly removed even when you succeed in removing an account. Try editing or removing them manually before removing the account itself. If you’re unsure what happens to your tracks: this can be found mostly in the Terms of Service/Privacy Policy; otherwise you can always contact Join Diaspora and ask personally. By the way, removal requests don’t necessarily mean your data will actually be removed (e.g. due to legal obligations).

Helpful Trick: Remove third-party logins

If you signed up for Join Diaspora using a third-party login such as Facebook or Twitter, you probably want to revoke all access from Join Diaspora. Click here to find out how.