Comment 12 for bug 462994

I just tried it again, i did:
test 1:
start up empathy
removed all accounts inside the program
sudo apt-get remove empathy --purge
sudo apt-get remove telepathy-*

sudo apt-get install empathy
started empathy and there where no accounts left.
in the .conf/empathy .gconf/apps/empathy and .mission-control maps there was nothing that directed to a previous install.

test 2:
made an account in empathy
sudo apt-get remove empathy --purge
sudo apt-get install empathy
started empathy and the account was still inside.

I don't know if empathy can do anything about it? But if u remove an application is it not common that everything is removed of that application from your harddrive? If u want to keep things the application self should have a backup/store settings function. Normal users are not used to clean everything up BEFORE they remove the program.