4 ms·

Over the past couple of months I've been in the process of deleting some dormant accounts. I've had the most issues specifically with airlines. It's been a bit

Over the past couple of months I've been in the process of deleting some dormant accounts. I've had the most issues specifically with airlines. It's been a bit of a challenge interacting with the company's customer support and/or digging through their privacy policies to find an email address to contact. I stumbled across this website a couple of times but opted not to use it, because it felt odd plugging in some personal info into a website I'd never heard of - much like those services that claim to remove you from people-search websites. However, I only now realize that this website/service actually generates an email on my behalf that includes the appropriate company email address and relevant messaging. I really wish websites like these weren't necessary at all. I should be able to delete an account (along with personal and financial details) just as easily as I create one.

Bilal_io 4y ago
My credit card company offers a similar service for free, they'd monitor my information online and then submit an opt-out request on my behalf. I don't use the service, but it's because of how opt-out requests work, I'd have to give an online website information about me that they may not have in order to delete the info they have, it sounds counterproductive and assumes they won't see the other info, or publish it a different way.
gigel82 4y ago
I've been doing the same after the LastPass incident (I haven't used it in a couple of years, but for old accounts I didn't do a good job of updating passwords). I agree it's surprising how many companies don't allow account deletion online; it's also surprising how many privacy policies link to dead URLs or email addresses (that literally bounce) if they even mention a "request to delete" at all. Plus many others that use the stupid bots for customer support or a form with a dropdown that doesn't include anything about privacy / account, just product support. But totally don't use any of these websites, they are very likely collecting and disseminating your data themselves.
- extr0pian 4y ago
  > it's also surprising how many privacy policies link to dead URLs or email addresses Agreed, many privacy policies I've come across are crap and seem like it was copy/pasted from elsewhere. I just recently tried to delete an account last week, and the email address in their privacy policy was literally "support@[company]1234.test".
  - arcanemachiner 4y ago
    Name and shame.

Bilal_io 4y ago

My credit card company offers a similar service for free, they'd monitor my information online and then submit an opt-out request on my behalf. I don't use the service, but it's because of how opt-out requests work, I'd have to give an online website information about me that they may not have in order to delete the info they have, it sounds counterproductive and assumes they won't see the other info, or publish it a different way.

gigel82 4y ago

I've been doing the same after the LastPass incident (I haven't used it in a couple of years, but for old accounts I didn't do a good job of updating passwords). I agree it's surprising how many companies don't allow account deletion online; it's also surprising how many privacy policies link to dead URLs or email addresses (that literally bounce) if they even mention a "request to delete" at all. Plus many others that use the stupid bots for customer support or a form with a dropdown that doesn't include anything about privacy / account, just product support. But totally don't use any of these websites, they are very likely collecting and disseminating your data themselves.

extr0pian 4y ago
> it's also surprising how many privacy policies link to dead URLs or email addresses Agreed, many privacy policies I've come across are crap and seem like it was copy/pasted from elsewhere. I just recently tried to delete an account last week, and the email address in their privacy policy was literally "support@[company]1234.test".
- arcanemachiner 4y ago
  Name and shame.