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I don't think so. Hotmail used to have a similar "feature": when the email address hadn't been logged in for 270 days, the account would be available again [1].
by dvdhsu 14y ago
I don't think so. Hotmail used to have a similar "feature": when the email address hadn't been logged in for 270 days, the account would be available again [1]. This was troubling because if I had signed up for some other service using my Hotmail address (say, a Gmail account) and didn't log in to my Hotmail account for nine months, whoever wanted to compromise my other account (Gmail, in this case) could sign up for Hotmail using my old username, and initiate a password reset. The password reset would go to my Hotmail, which no longer belongs to me.
Like it or not, email addresses are used to identify users on the web. This is based on the assumption that an email's ownership doesn't change. Recycling email addresses is dangerous given our reliance on emails as identification.
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hotmail#Hotmail_Plus http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hotmail#Hotmail_Plus
- kijin 14y agoThat reminds me of a paid Hotmail Plus account that I used to have, back in 2005 or so. I never renewed it because I finally got hold of a Gmail account shortly afterward, but the address is apparently still active after 8 years because every once in a while, I receive spam addressed to my old Hotmail address (forwarded to my "old" Gmail address). Not only is the account active, but even email forwarding (which were only available to paid users back then) still appears to be working.