Cleanse

Day Fifteen: Trash Unwanted Accounts

A trash can icon.
Time to take out the garbage ... (Credit: PNGall.com)

Take out the Trash

This is the boring part of the course. Boring but necessary for internet hygiene. Like brushing your digital teeth.

If yesterday was the day where we started to clean up your KEEP accounts, today we will take a stab at your LOSE accounts.

Table of Contents

These are the accounts you want to get rid of. You don't use them anymore. You only used them once to buy that one thing. You suspect they've sold your data. They've been acquired by Big Faceless Company You Don't Trust. They are the weakest link, goodbye!

On the Internet as in real life (IRL) it's often time to say goodbye. But we tend to ghost on those internet relationships because there's friction (i.e. a little work) involved in shutting those down.

And what's the use of deleting? you may ask. You're already getting rid of your everything-inbox so they can't get in touch with you. Those old accounts aren't doing any harm, exactly.

The problem is that you don't know where that data can and will go. Your old internet service provider or cell phone service could be hacked or sell their data elsewhere. The customer loyalty data associated with that one little tiny hole-in-the-wall boba tea place you used to frequent, or the place you got your coffee while in college, or the laundromat up the street when you shared a house with five friends just out of school -- you don't need your data sitting around in someone else's database.

So we're going to give it a shot today. Here are three things you can do to clean up traces of your digital past, washing away those old accounts and leave them in the sand.

Erase One Step at a Time

Working from your password manager or from your list, visit the websites of the services you're ready to LOSE.  Now you're going to log into them one at a time and see what your options are for deleting your account.

Navigate to the Profile or Account menu. Is there a "delete" button anywhere you can see?

Check their Privacy Policy. What do they say about deleting? Sometimes you can just write to them and say you want to delete your account and all information. They will give you an address to write to as well. Go ahead: write to them from that gmail address you are about to shut down anyway.

Here's a form letter for you to copy and paste:

To the Privacy Department,

I'm writing to permanently close my account with your service and request you delete all information associated with this account. This includes name, address, email address, phone number, and transaction details. Please send me written confirmation of this deletion to this address: deletion_mask@email_mask_of_your.choice. Thank you for your timely attention to this request.

Bonus points if you're in California or the EU! The former has The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) saying they have to delete your information when asked, so add the following: "This request is in compliance with the California Consumer Privacy Act." Be sure to check the link I included because there are some exceptions and the business may be obligated to ask you for some information in order to complete the request.

The EU has the GDPR and the Right to be Forgotten so if you are in the EU, you may add the following: "This request is in compliance with the GDPR's Article 17, the Right to Erasure."

See how far you can get with this to help you blow the data on those old accounts away, before you throw away the key for good.

Unsubscribe All

You're probably on a million mailing lists. Some of these you signed up for. Many of them you didn't. Your email has been scraped online, or your information has been sold, or a company transfered your data to its partners, or a data broker sniffed out what you were doing ... Either way, your email address is on all those peoples' systems, just sitting there!

The jury is out about this problem. On the one hand, you could unsubscribe using their little unsubscribe button on the bottom of their email. On the other, the unsubscribe button could itself be clickbait, to determine whether the email address is real or not. If you click it, they'll sell it.

This may not be a concern if you are about to can that email address anyway. Haven't you been downloading your Gmail now for the past week?

In any case, your mileage may vary on this one so you make the call. Some lists, you may be safe to leave and remove yourself. Others, you may be wary. But hopefully now you'll see the importance of never signing up for anything without an email mask. Because blowing the email mask away is far easier than jumping through these hoops or having to continually engage in the calculus of bad faith.

Brokerage Data Removal

But that's just the stuff you've signed up for (or, been signed up for). Your data has moved behind your back more than you know.

Pay a visit to Have I been pwned? "Pwned" is internet slang for something like, taken advantage of, exposed, sold out, or dominated (like "owned" but mistyped). In this case it means, has your data been hacked, leaked, or moved somewhere, and who's to blame? The lists are eye-opening.

It's a good idea to check this once or twice a year, because data hacking is increasing. Haven't we all got one of those letters in the mail apologizing for a leak?  This should give you a sense of how far your data has traveled beyond just a Google search (or DuckDuckGo search, I should say!) for your personal information. They can also do a password check based on lists of stolen passwords.

Blow those accounts away, lose those emails and change those passwords! And you'll also need to address the underlying problem, which is data brokerage.

There are services out there that will find your personal information and figure out a) where it's spread and b) remove you from the internet. These services literally employ artificial agents and people alike who basically do the above on your behalf, and much more. Here are a few of them that I trust (and some that I don't). 

  • DuckDuckGo's Privacy Pro package offers a deletion service plus VPN for is $9.99/month or $99/year. You get three services in one, as they roll in a great VPN service (of which more soon) and online identity theft solutions. Information privacy is at the core of DuckDuckGo's DNA and non-data selling is the basis of their revenue models so your data is likely safe with them.
  • Mozilla Monitor reviews and removes data and continually scans for new additions for $8.99/month or $107/year. Mozilla is both a Foundation and a Corporation and is unlikely to do anything with your data that is not on your behalf.
  • Based in the EU, the Lithuanian company behind NordPass and NordVPN also makes an identity theft monitoring service: NordProtect. Less for removing past breaches and more for continual monitoring going forward. As a privacy-centric company subject to the GDPR, your information (even for the purposes of deletion) is likely safe with them.
  • Delete.me has been at this since 2011, and they're a smaller Cambridge, MA based firm. They've done a lot of work with elected officials recently, and they can also be used by those outside the United States.
  • I haven't used them but one of the most consistently highly rated companies for this activity online is Incogni, and they apparently offer a family plan for a reasonable price. YMMV on this one.
  • If you need to remove details about you from popping up on the front page of Google searches, you can petition the giant to remove that information. No guarantees and it likely involves a lawyer, but they at least put that information up on the internet: Remove yourself from Google Search.

You'll note how this work requires doing what I mentioned in Day Thirteen, which is checking out the economic engine behind these services to make a best guess as to whether or not your information is safe. For instance, another company getting a lot of press (i.e. paying for attention online) is San Francisco based Optery, but I decided not to include them. Not because of the strength of their product, but becuase Crunchbase lists $2.8m seed investments in the firm since its founding in 2020, including YCombinator which as a powerful incubator has launched many famous startups as investment vehicles. That leads me to be wary that Optery is aiming to either go IPO or get acquired, along with your data. I'd avoid if you want to avoid enshittification down the road.

And you can also try removing yourself from sites like Spokeo, which scrape things like home ownership and 411 records to show personal information about you on the web. This whole thing seems pretty shady to me, though. I would certainly only give out email masks or an address you are about to blow away, and no more than that.

Proceed with Caution

Part of cleaning up after yourself is it allows you to turn the page on old habits and begin afresh. If you take the time to remove yourself from online services, mailing lists, data brokerage sites, and so on, you'll stand a chance at moving on with your new perspective and practices.

You'll also be able to focus more on the accounts you've kept, the relationships or companies that you want to invest in, and keep tabs on how or if your data is moving without your consent. 

So go ahead -- freshen up a little! It's time to declutter and take out the trash.