How to Find Old Accounts for Deletion | Avoid the Hack (avoidthehack!)
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So, you want to clean up your online identity/digital footprint a bit by deleting accounts... but where can you find those pesky old ones? Here are some tips.
  • ArchRecordEnglish
    32•2 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.

    • merlinEnglish
      5•2 months ago

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

      • ArchRecordEnglish
        3•2 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. 😶

        • merlinEnglish
          2•2 months ago

          Damn you must have atleast a thousand accounts. Keep on keeping on

  • @mac@lemm.eeEnglish
    5•2 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

    • @Whooping_Seal@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      1•23 days 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to reduce that potential risk, but you should also go into it assuming that anything that was publicly accessible has been archived / saved by someone.