According to reports, Facebook deactivations are apparently on the rise, with well-known people from the tech industry ditching their accounts on the social networking site.

In fact, the phrase “how to quit Facebook” generated almost 17 million results in a Google search on Tuesday morning; while “how do I delete my Facebook account?” resulted in nearly 16 million links.

Though it is evident that the Facebook exit policies are gaining attention, the reason behind the increased curiosity about quitting the social networking site is not too clear – the users have decided to take the exit route out of Facebook either because of privacy concerns or due to the rather tedious and time-consuming task of regularly updating the Facebook accounts.

Among the prominent industry name to have severed their Facebook ties include - the Google webspam chief, Matt Cutts, who reportedly deactivated his Facebook account on April 22; and the Gizmodo and Engadget founder Peter Rojas.

About cutting his Facebook ties, Rojas told ABCNews. com: “I was spending more time managing my account than actually using my account. Having to constantly monitor the privacy settings was way too complicated. You can never be sure if you actually caught everything.”

For quitting Facebook, the site offers two options: delete or deactivate. While deletion of account is an irreversible process; deactivation allows the site to save users’ personal information, so as to facilitate their return in future.