Old accounts are nothing new…okay enough jokes. Everyone has an old account, or ten, but who cares? Well, we all should care about our old accounts and probably delete old accounts too. Data breaches happen everyday and having more data points out there with your information in it only increase the likelihood you’ll be impacted. So, where should you begin? Well, if you haven’t read OPA’s Data Privacy, Part 1 or Part 2, you should start there first.
Now that you are all caught up:
First, let’s find a good way to keep track of all the accounts we inevitably have these days. Every company wants you to create an account and enter as much data about yourself as possible. Enter your birth date and you may get a free gift. Why is that? Data is valuable and the more information companies gather, the better they can advertise to you and the more your data can resell for too. So, back to our first point, find a password manager. That’s a great way to keep track of accounts, not to mention many password managers will alert you to unsafe passwords and even help generate new ones. Be sure you use a reputable password manager (some options reviewed here by PCMag)and as always, activate multi-factor authentication (mfa).
Second, assuming you have a password manager or have kept track of all your accounts over the years, its time to talk about deletion. If you have old accounts that you don’t use anymore, maybe for an old social media site, former music service, or that one time you bought from that one website you’ll never use again, many have ways to shutdown, terminate, and/or delete your account. Many don’t offer this out of the kindness of their heart, they are actually required too in order to meet regulatory compliance for acts passes both in the USA and in Europe. So, find those old accounts, request deletion, and if needed download your data before deletion where applicable.
Its your data and you alone must protect your digital fingerprint. Something as simple as an email address and old password you used can be revealing, so clean up this spring and delete your old digital accounts.