Today, on Valentine’s Day of all days, someone in a developer community sent me a link to check out a web app.
I clicked. There was no landing page. No explanation. No screenshots.
Just a login screen with one massive Continue with Google button.
No context. No description. Just the app title and the login button.
So I did what most of us do. I clicked it.
Within seconds I was inside.
I looked around. Saw how the app works. It was interesting. That was it. I was done.
I went to log out.
And that’s when it hit me.
I don’t want to log out.
I want to delete my account.
Because I’m not coming back. I was just exploring.
But there was no delete option.
Just logout.
Logout vs Delete Account
Let’s be clear.
When you logout, the app:
- Ends your session
- Removes your active token
- Stops showing you your dashboard
That’s it.
Your name is still there.
Your email is still there.
Your Google ID is still there.
Your user record still exists in the database.
Logging out is simply ending access from your side. It does not remove your presence from the system.
Deleting your account is a completely different action.
The Continue with Google Flow
OAuth makes account creation extremely frictionless.
You click Continue with Google and instantly:
- Your email is shared
- Your name is stored
- A user record is created
- Your identity is linked to the app
You didn’t fill a form. You didn’t type a password. You just clicked.
And now you exist in another database.
If it takes seconds to create an account, it should not be complicated to delete it.
The Awkward Part
Since there was no delete account button, I had to text the developer directly and ask them to manually remove my email from their database.
That alone reveals something important.
If users have to contact you personally to leave your system, then your system was not designed with exit in mind.
That is not necessarily malicious. But it is incomplete.
Why Delete Account Is Often Missing
There are practical reasons many apps skip building a proper delete account feature:
- The database schema was not designed for deletion
- Related records make hard deletion complex
- Metrics benefit from higher user counts
- It was postponed as a low priority feature
If a user has:
- Posts
- Comments
- Activity logs
- Analytics references
Removing them can break relationships unless the architecture supports soft deletes or cascading logic.
As I discussed in The Hidden Costs of “Simple” Features, features that look trivial on the surface often hide deeper architectural complexity.
Delete account is one of those features.
Simple in expectation. Complex in implementation.
Still necessary.
The Psychology of Logout
The word “logout” feels final.
It gives a psychological sense of closure.
But technically, nothing meaningful changes about stored data.
Your information remains in the database unless explicit deletion logic is triggered.
That gap between expectation and reality is what makes this topic important.
What Delete Account Should Mean
When someone clicks delete account, they reasonably expect:
- Personal data removed
- Email no longer stored
- OAuth provider unlinked
- No future communication
- No lingering profile
This is not paranoia. It is a reasonable expectation of digital autonomy.
Discussions around privacy and data control continue to grow globally. Frameworks such as the General Data Protection Regulation emphasize the right to erasure. But beyond regulations, this is about trust.
If users can enter freely, they should be able to exit freely.
A Bigger Design Question
This experience started as a random thought. But it raises a bigger question.
Why do we obsess over optimizing entry flows, yet treat exit flows as an afterthought?
We carefully design:
- Signup funnels
- Onboarding sequences
- Conversion optimization
But rarely design dignified exits.
The ability to leave is part of what makes staying voluntary.
Delete account is a small feature.
But it communicates something significant.
It says:
- We respect your autonomy
- We considered the full lifecycle
- You are not trapped here
And that is the kind of web experience worth building.
Have you ever signed up to test something and then realized you could not fully delete your account?
Did you log out and move on, or did you search for a delete account option?
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