4 ms·

I wouldn't delete social media accounts because they might become available to register for malicious actors who can then impersonate you. Keep the accounts, ju

I wouldn't delete social media accounts because they might become available to register for malicious actors who can then impersonate you. Keep the accounts, just don't use them any more.

stevenAthompson 2y ago
Some, like LinkedIn, allow you to place the account in "hibernation." Which removes the ability to login without reactivating it, but doesn't completely remove it.
- benatkin 2y ago
  Not as reliable as doing a small amount of gardening of yours.
Baeocystin 2y ago
I have a very common name, and monkey's paw wish managed to get the unnumbered version for my gmail address. It has been a significant amount of work just dealing with all the derppelgängers out there who use an address they don't own for important things. Medical records. Divorce papers. Mortgages. The short of it is that it doesn't even require maliciousness on someone else's part to be affected by impersonation, accidental or otherwise. So yeah, keep what you've got, because there's no guarantee the next person to get it will not somehow affect you.
- ChrisMarshallNY 2y ago
  I registered a domain with my name, many moons ago. Sometime later, a lawyer in Australia registered the .au version, but it was <MY NAME>.com.au, not <MY NAME>.au. <MY NAME>.com (no .au) was (and still is) my domain, and I get email, there. I started getting really confidential stuff sent to my email, from the Australian courts. Stuff that could easily get people fired and sued. I reported it for ages to both the courts and the lawyers. Eventually (after about 2 years), it stopped. I haven't gotten one of those for a long time.
atrettel 2y ago
There isn't anything unique about your account on most social media platforms. This isn't a "plant your flag" situation like when trying to prevent identity theft. You don't need to register your account before a bad actor does. Sure, I created an online account with the IRS, credit bureaus, etc. before somebody else could. That's important because they are tied to unique identifiers like your SSN, etc. But somebody could just create a social media account impersonating you even if you already have an account on that social network. There isn't anything enforcing the uniqueness.
- chenmike 2y ago
  I’m pretty sure GP is saying if you already had an account and you delete it, it’s trivially easy for someone to register with your old handle and impersonate you Of course people can always impersonate you but the goal here is to prevent them from impersonating you with a social handle people knew you had.
  - jjulius 2y ago
    If I recall correctly, the handle you deleted stays inactive and is unavailable to new registrants. This is present on Google at least, I assume it's the same elsewhere.
    - esskay 2y ago
      Not the case on Twitter. It becomes instantly available to anyone who wants it.
      - jjulius 2y ago
        Well that seems... dumb.
        esskay 2y ago
        Yup, about par for the course with Twitter these days sadly.
ipython 2y ago
Agreed. I’ve done this and I’d you have an existing fan base on those platforms, a final post that explains where you are and why you’re not active can help keep those folks engaged. Plus I feel like I’m still costing the platform the fractions of fractions of a cent to keep my data stored, replicated and active somewhere
- johnnyanmac 2y ago
  No worries, they more than paid for that storage with the data they sold off. At least before GDPR rulings shut that down.
mattgreenrocks 2y ago
Agree. Hold onto them, else someone can snatch them up and you may have to clean up the reputational mess later. See this happen to an acquaintance of mine.
olyjohn 2y ago
They will do this either way. Fake profiles are created all the time that are copied exactly from a real person's profile. If you have an account, and don't log in and check it every now and then, this will probably happen to you too.
austin-cheney 2y ago
That is poor advice. There are now roughly a dozen people who have social media accounts in my name, because it’s their name too. This isn’t impersonation. It’s also not a problem.
- kristiandupont 2y ago
  Someone recently created a "duplicate" account for the dad of one of my friends. Same profile picture, username very similar. But one of his friends who received a friend request from the new account was already friends with the old account and wrote a message asking what that was about, which is how my friend discovered it. So at least in that one instance, having the account was helpful.
amelius 2y ago
Also: TSA officer: "please log in to your social media account" You: "I have no social media" TSA officer: "step out of the line please"
- geraldhh 2y ago
  surely annoying, probably illegal

I wouldn't delete social media accounts because they might become available to register for malicious actors who can then impersonate you. Keep the accounts, just don't use them any more.

stevenAthompson 2y ago

Some, like LinkedIn, allow you to place the account in "hibernation." Which removes the ability to login without reactivating it, but doesn't completely remove it.

benatkin 2y ago
Not as reliable as doing a small amount of gardening of yours.

Baeocystin 2y ago

I have a very common name, and monkey's paw wish managed to get the unnumbered version for my gmail address. It has been a significant amount of work just dealing with all the derppelgängers out there who use an address they don't own for important things. Medical records. Divorce papers. Mortgages. The short of it is that it doesn't even require maliciousness on someone else's part to be affected by impersonation, accidental or otherwise. So yeah, keep what you've got, because there's no guarantee the next person to get it will not somehow affect you.

ChrisMarshallNY 2y ago
I registered a domain with my name, many moons ago. Sometime later, a lawyer in Australia registered the .au version, but it was <MY NAME>.com.au, not <MY NAME>.au. <MY NAME>.com (no .au) was (and still is) my domain, and I get email, there. I started getting really confidential stuff sent to my email, from the Australian courts. Stuff that could easily get people fired and sued. I reported it for ages to both the courts and the lawyers. Eventually (after about 2 years), it stopped. I haven't gotten one of those for a long time.

atrettel 2y ago

There isn't anything unique about your account on most social media platforms. This isn't a "plant your flag" situation like when trying to prevent identity theft. You don't need to register your account before a bad actor does. Sure, I created an online account with the IRS, credit bureaus, etc. before somebody else could. That's important because they are tied to unique identifiers like your SSN, etc. But somebody could just create a social media account impersonating you even if you already have an account on that social network. There isn't anything enforcing the uniqueness.

chenmike 2y ago
I’m pretty sure GP is saying if you already had an account and you delete it, it’s trivially easy for someone to register with your old handle and impersonate you Of course people can always impersonate you but the goal here is to prevent them from impersonating you with a social handle people knew you had.
- jjulius 2y ago
  If I recall correctly, the handle you deleted stays inactive and is unavailable to new registrants. This is present on Google at least, I assume it's the same elsewhere.
  - esskay 2y ago
    Not the case on Twitter. It becomes instantly available to anyone who wants it.
    - jjulius 2y ago
      Well that seems... dumb.
      - esskay 2y ago
        Yup, about par for the course with Twitter these days sadly.

ipython 2y ago

Agreed. I’ve done this and I’d you have an existing fan base on those platforms, a final post that explains where you are and why you’re not active can help keep those folks engaged. Plus I feel like I’m still costing the platform the fractions of fractions of a cent to keep my data stored, replicated and active somewhere

johnnyanmac 2y ago
No worries, they more than paid for that storage with the data they sold off. At least before GDPR rulings shut that down.

mattgreenrocks 2y ago

Agree. Hold onto them, else someone can snatch them up and you may have to clean up the reputational mess later. See this happen to an acquaintance of mine.

olyjohn 2y ago

They will do this either way. Fake profiles are created all the time that are copied exactly from a real person's profile. If you have an account, and don't log in and check it every now and then, this will probably happen to you too.

austin-cheney 2y ago

That is poor advice. There are now roughly a dozen people who have social media accounts in my name, because it’s their name too. This isn’t impersonation. It’s also not a problem.

kristiandupont 2y ago
Someone recently created a "duplicate" account for the dad of one of my friends. Same profile picture, username very similar. But one of his friends who received a friend request from the new account was already friends with the old account and wrote a message asking what that was about, which is how my friend discovered it. So at least in that one instance, having the account was helpful.

amelius 2y ago

Also: TSA officer: "please log in to your social media account" You: "I have no social media" TSA officer: "step out of the line please"

geraldhh 2y ago
surely annoying, probably illegal