Quit Facebook Day falls flat

Facebook still has 400 million users

Yesterday's Quit Facebook Day appears to have been something of a flop, as not even one per cent of users left the social network.

The Quit Facebook Day group claimed that over 34,000 people closed their Facebook account owing to privacy concerns, but this is just a tiny fraction of the company's 400 million subscribers.

Facebook users are likely to be staying put either because they are satisfied with the privacy updates introduced in recent weeks, or because they have grown too dependent on the site to leave.

Facebook clearly hopes it is the former. "We hope that people who had previously committed to quitting Facebook have spent some time going through their privacy controls instead," said a Facebook statement.

The social site has upset users in recent months by not providing enough control over personal data.

Changes in privacy settings in December allowed users to control who sees each individual piece of content uploaded, whereas the previous policy had allowed them to create block settings which proved easier to manage.

Facebook recently admitted it that it had "missed the mark" with the change, and modified its data policy after complaints from the European data protection agency and the US Federal Trade Commission.

A survey by market research firm Vision Critical of nearly 700 US Facebook users found that 61 per cent believe that Facebook has done a good job of responding to privacy concerns.

But Vision Critical also said that a mass exodus is unlikely because people have grown too accustomed to the site.

"Too many users are just too vested in the service to delete their account and dismantle a social network they have cultivated over time," said Matt Kleinschmit, Vision Critical's media president.