Can you really delete public information?

Ever tried to delete that twitter account or cancel that facebook profile because you're spending all day at work or in class looking up people you haven't seen since the 6th grade? Most people believe it's pretty easy and that once you throw that information you've shared into the hypothetical cyber recycling bin. (Why is all data recyclable? I may consider some 0s and 1s out there to be trash. I'll e-mail Microsoft this afternoon about changing the name "recycling bin".) You may want to think twice about public sharing as it is about infinitely easier to share than it is to "unshare".

Deleted social networking pages doesn't necessarily mean they're gone. Discovery News posted an interesting article tackling online privacy laws. Remember that site "Friendster" - the one which inspired Mark Zuckerberg to create Facebook? Yeah it sucks to be them. However, in this day and age having a following or group of users might as well be cash in your pocket. All those who "deleted" their Friendster account were treated to a exclusive VIP tour into a new rebranded entertainment-oriented site complements of the failed social network group. Friendster simply rolled over that information from previous users of the site using contact info like an e-mail account to send out invites. And yes - it's legal. It's called recyclable data and many social websites claim the information as their own every time you hit that post or tweet button.

Why can't people just get trashed?