Account Deletion Request
Identity verified. Subscription cancelled. Data deletion job triggered with audit ID. Final confirmation receipt sent. Records preserved per legal/retention policy.
Before you start
- Documented account deletion policy (legal, privacy, retention)
- Identity verification protocol
- Cross-team workflow (engineering, legal, billing)
- Customer's deletion request (email or in-app)
- Account details (email, ID, plan)
- Active billing or contract terms
The steps
- Acknowledge within 1 hour and verify identity — Acknowledge the request, explain the verification step. Verify identity via authenticated channel — login token, security question, or email reply from the account email. Never delete based on an unauthenticated email alone — fraud risk.
- Confirm the customer understands the consequences — Send a confirmation with: what data will be deleted, what cannot be recovered, any export options before deletion, how the process works, and the timeline (e.g., 30-day grace period for legal compliance). Require explicit 'yes, proceed' before action.
- Process subscription cancellation — If they have an active subscription, cancel via billing. Apply prorated refund if policy allows. Confirm the cancellation in writing. Don't leave billing open while deleting account — billing+deletion mismatch causes disputes.
- Trigger data deletion workflow — Trigger the engineering-built data deletion workflow. This typically: marks account for deletion, queues actual data removal across primary DB and analytics systems, schedules removal from backups per retention policy. Track the deletion job ID for audit.
- Honor legal hold or retention exceptions — If the account is under legal hold or has retention requirements (regulatory, fraud investigation), do not delete — pause and notify legal. Customer must be informed if their deletion is delayed for legal reasons.
- Confirm completion and provide receipt — When deletion completes (typically 30 days post-confirmation), send a final email: 'Your account has been deleted as requested on [date]. Reference: [job ID].' Receipt protects against later disputes.
If it goes wrong
Identity not verified, account deleted by impostor
Hard-fail: never delete without verified identity. If a process slip caused this, rebuild with required verification gate. Restore from backup if possible.
Subscription continues to bill after deletion
Deletion workflow must include subscription cancellation as a hard step. Audit billing weekly for orphaned subscriptions.
Customer requests deletion then asks for data back
Communicate clearly: deletion is irreversible after the grace period. Within grace period, accept reversal. After, confirm we cannot recover.
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