14 DAY TRIAL // Users must know that by setting up an account with Skype in order to make free online calls, they are also exposing themselves to a security problem. The thing is that if you no longer want to use your account and decide to get rid of it, you will find out that deleting it is impossible. The only thing that you can do is remove the information from your profile, so that it stays private, but the user name you picked will never be deleted.
"Unfortunately, for technical and security reasons, deleting a username is not possible. In order to prevent someone else from registering with the same username, an act that could lead to identity theft," says Max Wolf from the Office of the President of Skype.
If you have downloaded and installed Skype on the laptop that the company you work for has provided, then you must be very careful when leaving said company. You must uninstall the software from the laptop, otherwise your employer will have access to your Skype account.
Facebook used to employ a similar technique, but gave it up this February after much pressure from the public. Now Facebook users who want to permanently delete their account can contact the website admins and inform them about their decision.
According to J.A. Watson from ZDNEt, there are two reasons why Skype does not delete the usernames. The Skype team prides itself on having well over 300 million users, but that number is not accurate at all. You must be aware of the fact that they are also counting users who have decided to give up on their account, but were unable to permanently delete it. J.A. Watson claims that the actual number of users is about 10% of the 320 million Skype boasts about.
The second reason is that Skype lacks the resources - "they have absolutely no customer support or technical support, there is no one to handle the delete requests," says Watson.