May 31: Day to quit Facebook

Has that time finally arrived when you’d be better off deleting your Facebook account? If so, then May 31 is looking like D-Day.

A website called Quit Facebook Day has set the last day of May as the day everyone keen to leave the social network should finally take the plunge and hit the Delete key.

Several high profile technology pundits and celebs are kicking the world's number one social networking site to the curb.

The bridge too far has been Facebook's recent introduction of a platform that, by default, gives third-party companies access to members' names, friend lists and hobbies to "personalise" their surfing experience.

When a member logs onto a partner site, such as Yelp or Pandora, the content displayed is shaped by their own interests, as well as the activities of their Facebook friends. To disable this feature, a manual opt-out is required.

According to a security expert website, Facebook users unwittingly expose themselves to five dangers that might be beyond their control: their information is shared with third parties; their privacy settings revert to a less safe default mode after each redesign; malware from Facebook advertisements; fake profiles from scammers; and real friends who unknowingly make them vulnerable.

Google Canada reports that the top online search related to "Facebook account" is "delete Facebook," while the fastest-rising related query is "deactivate Facebook account," up 40 per cent over the past 90 days.

Worldwide, the search engine's results on Facebook account deletion ballooned from 15.9 million to 19.5 million between May 11 and 13 alone. There are 400 million members in total.

Privacy and security must be dirty words at the Facebook HQ at the moment as the world's largest social media network comes under fire for its privacy policy that has left users exposed and vulnerable.

Amazingly, it was reported that Facebook's privacy policy is a whopping 5,830 words long, even more verbose than the Constitution of the United States which reads at 4,543 words. Meanwhile, Facebook is making it difficult for users to delete their accounts. Let's wait for May 31!