Most people I know who are leaving facebook because of the changes (why they're mad, I have no fucking idea. It's free.) are now even more furious because they found out that deactivating your account doesn't really delete it. It'll just sit there, with all your posts and pictures until you decide to log in again, at which point it's active, and it's as if you never left.

To permanently delete your account, there are two steps you need to take:

1) go here: [link to www.facebook.com (secure)] log in, and press submit. Your account will now be INNACTIVE.

2) After TWO WEEKS of your account being innactive, it will then be permanently deleted. Be sure not to do anything with your facebook account. Otherwise, it will reactivate and the scheduled deletion will be cancelled.


Also!...

If you find the idea of downloading all of your pictures and crap before deleting your profile daunting, there's a much easier way to do it. Simply go to Account settings -> General, and at the bottom there is a link called "Download a copy of your Facebook data." Once you do so, facebook will take about an hour to compile all of your crap into a zip file and then send you an email with a link to download it.

Alos!...

They have backups of all your crap and 750 million others. Don't think that deleting your account has made you immune against the next McCarthyist politician if there ever is one.