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How to Find Old Accounts for Deletion

⁨47⁩ ⁨likes⁩

Submitted ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨Forumite@lemm.ee⁩ to ⁨privacyguides@lemmy.one⁩

https://avoidthehack.com/delete-old-accounts

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  • ArchRecord@lemm.ee ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    TLDR;

    • Check your Password Manager/Stored Browser Credentials
    • If on Apple devices, check your Keychain
    • If on Android or using/used Chrome, check your Google Password Manager (enabled if you chose to save passwords to your Google account)
    • Search old email inboxes
    • Search for your email in data breaches
    • Search for old usernames you re-used across sites

    I personally would also add searching your browser cookies, since some browsers will keep around old cookies for years if you don’t clear them.

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    • aprehendedmerlin@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Perfect TLDR. I check all the credentials in Bitwarden every few months for the ones I need to get rid of

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      • ArchRecord@lemm.ee ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        I’ve been checking my password manager for over a year now, and I’m still finding more old accounts I have to delete!

        My 120 deleted or pending deletion accounts only make up about 1/2 of the ones I need to delete overall. 😶

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  • mac@lemm.ee ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Does deleting old accounts really do much? Once you do something online, you should assume it’s there even if you delete it.

    Best you can do is adopt a more privacy conscious way to go about things and just let your old footprint go stale

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    • Whooping_Seal@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      I would say the only potential “benefit” is if the account contains non-public facing personal information - you are reducing the chance it gets leaked via data breach (assuming, of course, they actually erase your data properly)

      But I would say it is at least worth it to reduce that potential risk, but you should also go into it assuming that anything that was publicly accessible has been archived / saved by someone.

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