I can totally sympathize with you. It's the only site I know where I have to go through the privacy settings and make sure things haven't "evolved" to leave my information, connections and data more exposed to either search engine spiders or the public than I want. Really, it's pretty incredibly lame on their part in a society where people complain all the time about loss of privacy in the digital world.
That's another topic, however, I suppose. :-\
If you are sure that you do want to delete your Facebook account then here's how you do that.
Are you sure that's what you want to do, however, rather than just going into the privacy settings and minimizing your exposure?
Okay, okay. Here are the steps...
Go to "Account Settings":
Once your there, scroll down and at the bottom you'll find:
Click on the "deactivate" link on the right and you'll see an exhaustive list of reasons why you might want to leave. They're collecting data, obviously:
Sounds like your issue is about privacy, so if you choose "I have a privacy concern" you'll find a little editorial commentary from the Facebook team:
A bit lower down you can also specify that people sending you friend invites (etc) will or won't bother you:
Again, I'd say you should think carefully before you check this option, but if you really want to never have Facebook darken your email doorstep again, this is how to do it.
Either way, click on "Deactivate My Account" if you're sure that's what you want to do. Now it's time to go through the gauntlet, starting with your password again (just in case someone sees you logged in and decides it'd be a great practical joke to delete your account):
Remembered your password? Good. Now prove you're not a robot:
This CAPTCHA requires the words "Society" "darneder" (whatever that means). Enter those correctly and click on "Submit".
Success! The account is officially shut down, removed, deleted and... um, just a sec. As you can see from the text above, Facebook doesn't seem to delete your information, just deactivate the account. I'm guessing that's not what you want, but it's the best you can do.
By the way, a few minutes later you'll get an email from Facebook about your deactivated Facebook account:
So now you know. That's the best you can do, and it does effectively shut down your Facebook account and prevent anyone else from using your email address in the future.
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Scary. Facebook doesn't delete your information, but keeps it indefinitely. You can always reactivate your account and get back to your page.
Imagine the value of that database for advertisers or various other "evil" institutions. Astronomical.
Dare to resist the call of the 'book!