The delete button and what it reaches
Deleting an account usually removes your access to it. Whether it removes the conversations, the logs, the backups and the training copies is a separate matter, decided by retention policy rather than by the button. Asking 4 questions first is faster than asking afterwards.
People press delete expecting erasure and receive closure. Both are legitimate products of a delete button, and they are not the same product.
On this page
Closure and erasure
Closure removes your ability to sign in and hides the profile. Erasure removes the records. A service can do the first immediately and the second never, and both are consistent with the word delete on a button.
Backups outlive the record
Any service worth using takes backups, and backups are not editable in place. A record deleted today usually persists in backups for the retention period of those backups, which is measured in weeks or months. This is normal engineering and it is rarely mentioned next to the button.
Training copies are a third thing
Where a service trains on conversations, the text may already have been used before you deleted anything. Deletion removes the stored conversation and does not reach into a model that was already trained. This is why the training setting matters more, and earlier, than the delete button.
The 4 questions
Ask what is removed, what is kept, how long backups hold it, and whether training copies exist. A service that answers all 4 in its policy has been unusually clear. A service with no account has far less to answer: chats are kept for 30 days and then deleted, you can delete them yourself sooner, and with no account nothing ties them to your name.
Questions before you start
Does a legal deletion request reach further?
In several jurisdictions it does, and it takes time and has exceptions for records the service must retain. It is stronger than the button and it is not instant.
Why keep anything after deletion?
Fraud handling, legal obligations and accounting all require records, and those requirements outlast an account. This is legitimate and it should be stated rather than implied.
Is deleting the conversation enough?
It removes it from your view. Whether it leaves the server is the same question as above, with the same 4 parts.
No account, and chats you can delete yourself, is the shortest answer to all 4 questions.
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