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Just Delete Me – A directory of direct links to delete your account
- jcims 7y agoIt would be nice if they cataloged the Forgot Password links so folks could see if they actually have an account at these services. I've been on the Internet for almost 30 years, they accumulate. Edit: Just tried hitting forgot password on the first 10 sites. Surprising how many directly tell you that account doesn't exist.
- andai 7y agoI've been thinking of writing a script to go through my emails and make a list of all the "welcome" emails, which should roughly approximate all the accounts I registered. And then another one for "you are now subscribed to our newsletter" lol
- giancarlostoro 7y agoTo this day I regret having pruned really old emails on some of my email accounts cause I cant go back. This was long before Gmail had an archiving feature.
- wyre 7y agoAs far as I remember, even in beta, Gmail had the option to archive. What set Gmail apart from other free email services was the large amount of email storage that was always slowly increasing. I don't remember my first google addresses but I don't think I've ever needed to delete an email.
- giancarlostoro 7y agoI wasn't deleting due to storage, just to clean up my inbox. I was on Gmail for the beta in 2004 (or was it sooner?) and I don't recall an archive button, maybe it was just white noise to me at the time, I was a young teenager back then.
- vortico 7y agoFor a minute, I thought these were direct links to delete your account, meaning that going to these links would delete your account immediately, a bit like like Super Logout (DO NOT CLICK https://superlogout.com/ https://superlogout.com/ OPEN IN INCOGNITO TAB).
- yoz-y 7y agoWhich raises a question of how many services out there do have links that would delete your account without confirmation (or confirmation that could be somehow spoofed by client side JS).
- t0astbread 7y agoHow could you even implement an easy account deletion flow with un-spoofable confirmation if the whole client is considered untrusted?
- vortico 7y agoI think checking referrers is the normal way to solve this. As long as your site doesn't have XSS vulnerabilities on other pages, I think you're fine, but I'm not an expert though. EDIT: Nonces are better, ignore this reply.
- iwalton3 7y agoUsually this is done by sending an nonce that must be sent back with the request to delete the account. The attacking site won't have the nonce, so it cannot delete the account. Currently, you can also get a similar protection by requiring headers such as "Content-Type: application/json", since other sites will not be able to make that request. Referer does work in some cases, but it is fairly common for users to disable the Referer, so relying on it for site functionality is not ideal.
- t0astbread 7y agoHow's the resource containing the nonce any more secure than just a plain "delete-account" endpoint? Thinking about it, you could probably use CORS and some methods like X-Frame-Options to protect your nonce. But then you could just use that on the whole deletion page and avoid the nonce, I guess?
- naicuoctavian 7y agoKudos to GDPR obliging companies to allow users to delete their personal data.
- Crinus 7y agoPeople say that but my paranoid side is convinced that no real deletion happens :-/
- giancarlostoro 7y agoIts likely not deleted in backups is my suspicion. I dont know what policies some companies have in regards to backups. Also some companies always had the option for years. One good test might be to create Facebook and instagram accounts, then upload images, save direct links to those images. Delete the accounts and see.... If the links work after clearing cache / a few days / weeks / months... Then yeah they just keep your data but detach it from friends and your email / password.
- jefftk 7y agoDirect links probably end up in their caches. If they stop being visited then you're fine and they'll be evicted, but intentionally evicting data that's been deleted is one of the hardest parts of implementing full deletion.
- Hitton 7y agoIndeed it isn't deleted from backups. And according to [1] it doesn't have to be. In the company I work for it's handled the way that we have a list of subjects (their id in database) who requested deletion and after restoring any backup the subjects' data from the list is deleted again. [1]: https://www.itgovernance.eu/blog/en/the-gdpr-how-the-right-to-be-forgotten-affects-backups https://www.itgovernance.eu/blog/en/the-gdpr-how-the-right-t...
- Metus 7y agoSo do those records get deleted eventually? Or do they live on forever like some kind of ghost?
- Yuval_Halevi 7y agoBrilliant. It's a time saver When someone clicks on one of the links, make sure it opens in a new window. Could be cool
- have_faith 7y ago> Hacker News > Impossible Not sure how I feel about this one. I think it's a nice gesture to respect someones wishes to delete their contributions regardless of the technical fact of external archives etc.
- giancarlostoro 7y agoThats misinformation. If you want a comment removed you can email the HN mods (I always forget the email). I feel like they could similarly delete your account upon request.
- amelius 7y agoBut why don't they automate it? 1. It's standard practice to have a delete my account option. 2. It's easier for users. 3. It's easier for admins. 4. The presence of the option makes clear that one can delete their account without much trouble. 5. With the option they don't get frowned upon, such as in this case.
- giancarlostoro 7y agoIn regards to posts you get an hour to edit / delete. Otherwise it stays once it gets replies just to keep history of conversations. In regards to deleting accounts that is a good question above my responsibilities as a fellow user to answer. I would love to hear from mods about it. It certainly would suck if we see old convos lose context / content over the years.
- jnordwick 7y agoI had a post yesterday that I wanted to delete. It was less than 30 minutes since the post, and there was no deleted button, but an older comment slightly more than 30 minutes old still had the delete button. HN moderation is very secretive and manual, and that introduces a lot of opportunity for bias. Edit: it's interesting that you cannot delete a comment with a reply, but you can edit it into nothing. I never noticed that. Seems like a useless distinction. So you can also force a comment to exist by just replying quickly so they cannot delete it. Neat trick.
- jmsflknr 7y agoAmazing that they are still around. I first used it about six or seven years ago. Haven't seen it mentioned anywhere in a very long time.
- arkovian 7y agoThis is awesome. I was thinking of going through my online accounts and deleting the ones I don’t use anymore, this is going to make things much easier!
- cjauvin 7y agoWhen you delete (or soft-delete) your Facebook account, it seems there is no way to also delete your corresponding Messenger account.. I've tried many times, to no avail.. is it simply possible?
- morcutt 7y agoThanks for sharing. I just recently deactivated Instagram for ~3 weeks, logged back in to download my photos, and then tried to deactivate again. At first, it failed and threw an error message about enabling cookies which made no sense. Then I got a pathetic error message stating "Sorry, you can only disable your account once a week. Try again in a few days." Pretty pathetic. https://imgur.com/a/5yHJM1Y https://imgur.com/a/5yHJM1Y
- justin_oaks 7y agoHow hard is it to get your account closed (not necessarily deleted) on those services that make it hard or impossible to delete your account? I know it's not the same, but might be good enough for some purposes. Perhaps if the service still doesn't close your account upon request, they may still do it due to terms-of-use violations or service abuse. (evil smirk)
- pcora 7y agothey may close if you violate terms. but you can't be sure if the data was actually deleted. I bet most keep it.
- glr 7y agoCannot find NSA website
- wakkaflokka 7y agoTangentially related, but I'd love a list of links to places where you can export your personal data (eg Google Takeout).
- pcora 7y agoThis is a nice guide, but it's very outdated. I removed battle.net recently without much hassle.
- namirez 7y agoI feel kind of uncomfortable commenting on HN, especially after reading this answer by Jacques Mattheij [1] with regard to deleting accounts: >If this is to ‘unsay’ stuff that you wrote in the past then that’s a good reminder to think twice before you hit that submit button lest you cause someone needless work. It sounds like a big "screw you" to me. It would have been way nicer to say something like "sorry we don't have time/resources to add this feature". [1] https://jacquesmattheij.com/the-unofficial-hn-faq/#deleteaccount https://jacquesmattheij.com/the-unofficial-hn-faq/#deleteacc...
- stmw 7y agoGlad this is continuing to get attention here on HN. There's an automated paid service called the same thing - https://www.abine.com/deleteme/ https://www.abine.com/deleteme/ - but it has blogs with additional info on how to do it yourself, too.
- LocalH 7y agoDeletion of accounts, I have no problem with. But I have a big problem with deletion of content, outside of a window of time similar to that of editing posts. My opinion is, if you write it, you publish it, then you don't have the right to leave such a big hole in a discussion. I'm sick of being on various social media and seeing "deleted" "deleted" "deleted". I'm fine with removing your name from the posts, but other than that, if you say it, you shouldn't be able to run from it. GDPR isn't some shining beacon of light, it's just a framework of policies set forth by people of power. GDPR has the potential to be just as damaging as the improper uses of PII (for example, look at what happened to the comments on a crapton of MS blogs when they transitioned to a different backend - all the comments were wiped because it was too much work to both preserve those comments and ensure GDPR compliance).
- jahewson 7y agoThat's your opinion. The EU's opinion is that you have the right to be forgotten - though this is separate from GDPR.
- LocalH 7y agoI think the "right to be forgotten" should be limited to certain specific instances regarding long-ago conduct. I don't understand this desire people have to participate in society, then try to completely pull out and say "oh, not only am I not participating, but I want to also redact every piece of content I ever wrote". Forget the person, not their contributions.
- lone_haxx0r 7y agoDo you realize that a real "right to be forgotten" would mean forcibly deleting content from other people's memory? So, if such a right existed, people would have to get killed, or at least being hit strong enough in the head so that they forget the holder of the right. There are few ideas more totalitarian than a right to control someone else's memory.
- CM30 7y agoHonestly, I agree with this. Forum discussions basically become unusable if members can randomly delete everything they ever posted years after the fact, and I've seen numerous Reddit posts that now make zero sense because a bunch of users used one of those 'comment override' scripts. It gets even worse if the user can delete the whole topic, since it also removes a bunch of posts from users who may not want them removed. I don't see no issue with forums and similar sites not allowing contributions to be deleted. P.S. Also, for the longest time, most forums didn't even allow account deletions. Kinda curious when the expectations changed there, since I distinctly recall the likes of vBulletin and XenForo not letting members remove accounts or content.
- donretag 7y agoNow if there was only away to delete your information from recruiters' databases. I still get cold calls by recruiters who get my number from a ten year old resume.
- tehabe 7y agoWhat is this backgroundchecks.org? Last time I saw this site, this wasn't a part of it. The site itself doesn't give any information about who is behind it.
- arkovian 7y agoApparently, they have bought it from the original creators, but never updated it since.
- breakingcups 7y ago> Backblaze > Impossible Now this is disappointing for a backup company. Hope yevp sees this and weighs in. Is it even impossible for a EU citizen filing a GDPR request?
- arkovian 7y agoI think it has to be, otherwise Backblaze is not allowed to offer its services in the EU.
- Hoasi 7y agoVery useful. Interestingly, with few exceptions, the worse user experience correlates with the hardest it is to delete a profile. > GoDaddy Accounts are apparently retained “to comply with [their] legal obligations” though you are able to clear out most of your information by editing your profile. That's always a good idea.
- 19ylram49 7y agoAs a principle, I never work on products that employ dark patterns, such as making account deletion hard or impossible, to control their users and/or content. I find it sad that we even need a directory for what I consider to be a fundamental option.
- 19ylram49 7y agoI find it even more sad that this current medium, HN, is guilty of this. Sigh.
- fpgaminer 7y agoSince the comments are talking about Right to be Forgotten, there was a recent RadioLab podcast on that very subject: https://www.wnycstudios.org/story/radiolab-right-be-forgotten https://www.wnycstudios.org/story/radiolab-right-be-forgotte... Worth a listen; the focus is mainly on Cleveland'com's right to be forgotten experiment, where they are redacting or deleting old content when requested on a case-by-case basis. Regardless of how you feel about right to be forgotten, the episode makes a number of points both for and against that are worth hearing. I'm personally undecided on the issue, but I did come away from that podcast with one very strong opinion: I hope we as a society make a decision, either way, and codify it into law (much as the EU has done). Without those laws, we're forming kangaroo courts where small groups of biased individuals get to decide _who_ has the right to be forgotten. Yikes. I would also add the addendum, specifically for the HN audience who more often than most understand the concept that the "internet forgets nothing." Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good. If we do believe the right to be forgotten is an overall good thing, let's do it, even if the system won't wipe out _all_ instances of a piece of information. There's a tangible difference between something being the first Google result versus being on the second page.
- _jomo 7y agoUseful website, but years out of date and unmaintained. The actively maintained community fork can be found at https://justdeleteme.xyz https://justdeleteme.xyz. Repo: https://github.com/jdm-contrib/jdm https://github.com/jdm-contrib/jdm
- LinuxBender 7y agoThat site says digg is "hard". When digg had a comment structure similar to reddit, I used to comment quite actively, but too many political types were following me and creating a weird echo chamber, so I asked them to delete my account. 15 minutes later, my account and all my comments were gone. Maybe something changed when they removed that structure, I suppose.
- minitech 7y agoWhen you say you “asked”, do you mean you had to write a message to someone requesting deletion? Because that counts as hard. Ideally the site should respect your use of a simple button.
- LinuxBender 7y agoFair point. I submitted feedback to it was a few words and two clicks.
- zxcvbn4038 7y agoI’ve always wondered what’s going to happen when CBP finds out I have no social media accounts. You can’t find me on Facebook, nor follow me on Twitter, I’m not Linked In, etc. I am a citizen so I think they will just have to be unhappy about it. But I imagine that before things get to that point there will be a lot of threatening and posturing.
- paulpauper 7y agoI dunno why ppl say it is so hard to delete social media accounts such as Facebook or Twitter. It is actually very easy to do get an affiliate link for something like gambling or anything spammy post it as many places possible as fast as possible in fact, merely posting any link over and over will nuke your account, guaranteed. within minutes or hour max Facebook or Twitter will lockout and ghost your account for good, erasing all traces of it from existence. That way your account is gone and maybe you will make some extra $ in the process too.
- SahAssar 7y agoYou are clearly confused as to what deleting means, and at least for EU citizens deleting actually has a legal meaning in this context.
- adtac 7y agoThis isn't deleting your account, it's just removing your access to it. Don't do this. This will prevent you from actually deleting your data in the future because you're now locked out.
- Kip9000 7y agoDeleting accounts opens for hijacking and impersonation. Best is to just log out and abandon them.
- xb95 7y agoIt looks like this web site is unmaintained and incorrect in at least the Discord case. I see a PR open since 2017, and a comment on it saying 'this site is unmaintained.'
- benbou09 7y agoGoogle is "easy" and Youtube is "impossible". Is this reliable?