How to Delete Online Accounts
Deleting online accounts is a proactive step for individuals concerned about maintaining their data privacy.
Users can delete their online accounts for multiple reasons, including:
Data Breaches
No organization is completely safe from data breaches. When cybercriminals target an online platform, they have the potential to access, expose, or steal the valuable information they find within an organization’s network. They can then profit from the stolen data in various ways, like extortion or fraud. Individuals reduce the risk of their data getting compromised in such incidents by deleting an account.
Identity Theft
Cybercriminals can misuse stolen personal data in many ways. Identity criminals are particularly interested in Social Security Numbers, full names, dates of birth, driver’s license numbers, and personal account numbers. Deleting accounts minimizes the chance of such information falling into the wrong hands, and when we prioritize mitigation, professionals can help with recovery.
Unwanted Tracking
Online platforms make money in various ways, from directly allowing users to purchase services and goods to receiving a kickback from marketing adverts. Most organizations tailor their adverts to make them more relevant and clickable for their niche audience. Deleting an account can help individuals minimize their digital footprint and reduce the overall data available for organizations to track.
Inactive Account Vulnerability
Inactive accounts are those that a user creates and never logs into again. Some organizations have policies that dissolve inactive accounts after a few years, but this isn’t always true. If an account is left alone for too long, it can become a target for hackers and malicious agents. Thus, deleting the account ensures that criminals cannot exploit the profiles if a person no longer uses a particular online service.
Protecting Sensitive Information
Platforms monitor everywhere we go and everything we do online. The most evident example of this tracking is creating a new account on a website. When we sign up for these memberships, we directly hand over sensitive information, such as financial details, addresses, personal messages, and geolocation. Deleting an account helps safeguard this information from potential misuse by malicious cybercriminals.
Maintaining Control
In a world of constant monitoring and increasing data breaches, individuals have lost their ability to control data instantly. To some extent, this is true, mainly where public records are concerned, but users can still control their digital presence and the information they share. Deleting accounts empowers users to decide what information is accessible, who can access it, and for how long they have access.
Reducing Online Presence
Officials monitor our online behaviors constantly. These monitoring entities analyze everything from when a user opens an email to how interesting they find a side-column advert (and subsequently interact with it). Reducing our online accounts helps to minimize a user’s digital footprint, making it harder for third parties to collect and analyze the information they collect.
Legal and Compliance Reasons
Most platforms allow users to delete their accounts at any time. However, this doesn’t mean the company’s obligations aren’t in effect. In certain jurisdictions, some legal requirements or regulations govern the collection and storage of user data. Deleting accounts can help individuals with their immediate data concerns, but the data may remain under surveillance, depending on the platform.
Changing Preferences
A user’s preferences for data sharing may change over time. When this happens, individuals may reassess their preferences regarding their online presence. In times like this, a user might be able to remove their profile from public viewing, which would restrict access to the account. Deleting accounts aligns with a desire for increased online privacy and reinforces a more deliberate sharing of personal data.
Escaping Targeted Advertising
Personalized ads are everywhere online, tracking your behaviors from one web page to another and noting the outcomes of those behaviors. Some users find targeted advertising invasive because of its prevalence and influencing abilities, enticing users into spending money. Consequently, deleting accounts allows users to escape the constant tracking and profiling that fuels those personalized ads.
An important note before deleting your accounts: deletions can enhance privacy, but deletion does not guarantee that all associated data will dissolve. Every organization handles deletion requests differently. Some companies delete accounts instantly, and others retain data for up to 10 years before completing a request. To that end, each company also has personalized guidelines, users might find that they must call representatives to request a deletion, or they might find that they are on a waitlist because they reset a password in the last 60 days.
Further, every organization has special rules for requesting alterations like deletions; subsequently, individuals must review the Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy for every account before making a request. The nuances involved in deleting an account can cause significant frustration for some users; if you want help deleting some online accounts, our instructional guides can help.
How to Delete
Social Media Accounts
Objectively, the most straightforward accounts to delete are those derived from social media. Some might want to delete their social media profiles for various reasons, including personal and professional developments. They could be worried about spending too much time online, cyberbullying, harassment, professional concerns, or privacy intrusions. Further, social media represents a significant resource for cybercriminals, they could misuse various data available to the public, from the street a user grew up on to their mother’s maiden name. The best way to combat these problems is by taking control of your social accounts and limiting the data those accounts allow others to see.
How to Delete
Dating Site Accounts
Those with dating accounts have simple processes to follow when requesting a deletion. Still, if the user has purchased a subscription for exclusive services, they must cancel those obligations before requesting a deletion. Someone might want to delete their dating profiles for any reason, including finding a partner, taking a break from the services, or wanting to increase their cyber security. They could be worried about stalkers, harassment, geolocation, and personal data leaks. The best way to mitigate these potential issues is by deleting the impacted account, users can always make another when they’re ready.
How to Delete
Entertainment Accounts
More challenging than requesting deletions from social media and dating platforms, requesting an account deletion from an entertainment provider can be a long process. The increase in difficulty is due to the entitlements these accounts grant to their purchasing owners. For example, users cannot request deletion from Sony without calling their Support line, this serves as a secondary identity verification but is troublesome for those looking to avoid the platitudes of customer service. Someone might want to delete their entertainment accounts for many reasons, including avoiding harassment or payments, restricting public associations, or getting a fresh start with media.
How to Delete
Other Website Accounts
The most challenging accounts to delete are those linked with other platforms and affiliates. It is difficult to obtain a deletion for these because the alteration impacts additional elements online. For example, deleting a Google account impacts all associated accounts, including email addresses and contact information attached to the profile. Financial and investment accounts are also challenging to delete because they require additional verifications for the user to pass, unless they can meet the system’s requirements, users cannot complete their deletion requests. Deleting these accounts can help to consolidate the financial and personal data available on the web; however, users should review the Terms and Conditions of the platform before making their request.
How IDStrong Works
1. Monitor
We continuously monitor your personal and financial information, scouring the dark web for potential threats, active data breaches, and network element leaks.
2. Alert
If we locate your information somewhere in the dark recesses of the Internet, we will instantly notify you, alerting you to any information leaked, exposed, or breached.
3. Resolve
We won’t just alert you of the dangers; we’ll help you resolve them. Our identity protection experts are available 24/7 to help you take the necessary actions to restore your identity and get back to normalcy.
Our Benefits
Identity Monitoring
Our business is monitoring billions of records on the dark web. If we find anything about your information, we alert you to the risks and offer recovery strategies.
Credit Monitoring
One of the essential elements of your identity is that we monitor your credit profile for suspicious inquiries, new loans, or credit-related changes. That means no surprises when it’s time to put a down payment on your dream home or car.
Privacy Monitoring
Personal information is the lifeblood of data brokers. They collect and sell it on a massive scale, and when your data is harvested online and neatly parceled into their systems, we allow you to remove it with a click.
Up to $1 million Identity Theft Insurance *
If you are a victim of ID theft, we’ve got you covered. We will cover up to $1 million for theft recovery expenses. If the worst happens, that gives you peace of mind and a financial safety net.
Lost Wallet Assistance
We’ve got you covered, even if your wallet is lost or stolen. We’ll provide quick, reliable help navigating the world of data defense and structure the best recovery options for your situation. Our experts walk you through the process step-by-step.
Identity Restoration
If you experience identity theft, our expert fraud resolution team will deliver personalized support; we’ll investigate the situation, recover what we can, and restore your identity to its rightful status.
* The Identity Theft Insurance is underwritten and administered by American Bankers Insurance Company of Florida, an Assurant company.
Please refer to the actual policies for terms, conditions, and exclusions of coverage. Coverage may not be available in all jurisdictions. Review the Summary of Benefits.
