Forcing an export is an interesting idea. But, like, from the article it sounds like almost anything would be a better flow. It didn't even warn that any data would be deleted at all.
One further refinement I can think of is bundling in a deletion code with the export archive, e.g. a UUID. Then they could request the user to put in that code into a confirmation box, thereby "guaranteeing" the user did indeed download the whole thing and that the service provider is free to nuke it.
Wouldn't really be a guarantee in technical actuality, but one really needs to go out of their way to violate it. I guess this does make me a baddie insofar that this is probably how "theaters" are born, rituals that do not / cannot actually carry the certainty they bolster in their effect, just an empirical one if that.
