Shall I delete my Yahoo account?

Edwin · Jan 1, 2022

Haydon said:
Well, your survivors/loved ones may still give a sh*t about you

On the other hand, they may not give sh*t about you either

Objection! Hearsay!

Sustained!
I find sufficient evidence in this matter to declare a mistrial!

The witness is excused.

flashh4 · Jan 1, 2022

I didn't read through all the comments but for my point of view, i have kept all email accounts because some of the older ones are connected to log into a web site ! So i keep them to gain access to those !
Chuck

Haydon · Jan 1, 2022

BTW, I am not alone in my views, not by a long, long shot. Similar 'discontinuance provisions' have been under discussions for a couple of years at a couple of places elsewhere, albeit with a different focus, usually.

So, if it appears 'that I have made up my mind', well, I most definitely have not. But if you offer a response based on merely a couple of minutes worth of thought, well, then such response has for sure been vetted a long time ago in discussions between many people with vested interests over a couple of years. These people also don't fall for any kind of wish thinking, for that matter.

Things are in flux, although real progress could be faster.

humbird · Jan 1, 2022

Haydon said:
Did you ever think about the possibility that a year after you die, your name and email address could be used by someone doing things that you or your heirs wouldn't agree with?

Not scaring your personally, this affects all of us.

Oh of course I have. i am not an idiot. I have my computers, web sites and email addresses all taken care of, among other things. As far as the email address being reused, if there is no stuff online that is in danger anymore then they can recycle it if they want. I am sure my heirs will take care that nobody else will get what will be theirs.

Haydon · Jan 1, 2022

humbird said:
Oh of course I have. i am not an idiot. I have my computers, web sites and email addresses all taken care of, among other things. As far as the email address being reused, if there is no stuff online that is in danger anymore then they can recycle it if they want. I am sure my heirs will take care that nobody else will get what will be theirs.

Good

Care to elaborate on the 'all taken care of'? That really goes to the heart of misuse prevention.

Presumably, you instructed to wait until web sites and email addresses fade into obsolescence, before deleting them, then safely recycle or disperse computers among heirs. How long is the waiting time until obsolescence? Did you instruct any further precautions?

Thanks!

P.S. Careful not to call other people 'not taking care of' names, they may not like it :scream:

Wynona · Jan 1, 2022

I am so glad I never had a Yahoo email address.

zbook · Jan 2, 2022

If an email address is only numbers (10 choices) then if 10 characters = 10,000,000,000 accounts
If an email address is only letters of the alphabet (26 choices) then if 10 characters = 141,167,095,653,376 accounts
If an email address is numbers and letters (36 choices) then if 10 characters = 3,656,158,440,062,976 accounts

It's extremely unlikely to run out of emails if special characters are included too.

AOL had allowed 5 or more accounts at one time and deleted accounts if any one of them were not actively used.

Haydon · Jan 2, 2022

Wynona said:
I am so glad I never had a Yahoo email address.

You can't really say that, Wynona, Yahoo in its heyday can be extremely useful, it had been for me.

But after the decline, weird things began to happen. Or perhaps after those weird things happen, Yahoo began to decline. Difficult to say what is cause and what is effect.

The most serious issue was the gigantic data breaches. Lucky me, I never filled in my profile.

Yahoo! data breaches - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

The second most serious security issue was the Yahoo groups. As a security precaution, I accessed them with a web browser, and I never had an incident. Nearly all others accessed the Yahoo groups with an email client, because the Yahoo group software offers a range of attractive delivery options to choose from, like individual emails, daily digest, etc. I personally never saw any incidents in the groups that I was involved in either (I co-owned 1 group, co-moderated 3 groups, and participated in up to 3 more groups, and yeah, that's a reflection how useful Yahoo was for me) However, Yahoo had a special group for group owners and group moderators. What gets posted in that special group makes you shudder.

The third most serious security issue was Yahoo email. As with the groups, I access Yahoo email with a web browser, and I never had an incident. There was a really really angry, really really big mob about Yahoo email, but after a while it was only noise and no signal, so I shut it out and don't really know what happened.

Yahoo closed down all groups a couple of years ago, and my use of Yahoo came to an end. So yeah, now there is a dead mouse in the attic, and how to get rid of it safely.

Stigg · Jan 2, 2022

Have you deleted it yet?

Haydon · Jan 2, 2022

Stigg said:
Have you deleted it yet?

still on the fence

zbook · Jan 2, 2022

At one time I had had Yahoo accounts and rarely ever used them.
Recently I'd searched my name and found that it had records of my Yahoo accounts.
So there were security breaches.

Haydon · Jan 2, 2022

zbook said:
At one time I had had Yahoo accounts and rarely ever used them.
Recently I'd searched my name and found that it had records of my Yahoo accounts.
So there were security breaches.

Yeah, gigantic data breaches. I myself was lucky, I escaped.

Yahoo! data breaches - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

zbook · Jan 2, 2022

From the link:
Yahoo! later affirmed in October 2017 that all 3 billion of its user accounts were impacted.

Haydon · Jan 2, 2022

Well, I never filled in my profile, as I wrote earlier. Even if they had hit my profile, it is empty. Although those breaches kept my online paranoia alive, LOL

humbird · Jan 2, 2022

Haydon said:
Good Care to elaborate on the 'all taken care of'? That really goes to the heart of misuse prevention.

Presumably, you instructed to wait until web sites and email addresses fade into obsolescence, before deleting them, then safely recycle or disperse computers among heirs. How long is the waiting time until obsolescence? Did you instruct any further precautions?

Thanks!

P.S. Careful not to call other people 'not taking care of' names, they may not like it

First of all I did not even remotely imply that others have not or will not take care of their own things in the ways that they see fit. I only said I have.. There is probably no way on earth to make sure you do not leave traces of yourself, but being a bit old fashioned I do not do anything sensitive online. I do them in person. Yes, I know that is still a can of worms as I can't control the security of ccompanies that I use. As far as accounts online go I do not have many, I use a file cabinet at home which I suppose could be compromised if someone was to break into my house. A safe for valuables. When I die all accounts will be closed via information kept in my safe and all electronic things will be wiped and recycled. If I have left footprints all over the place then so be it. I am done with this thread as my online prescence may not be as large as yours, thus I may be of no use to you.

Haydon · Jan 2, 2022

Good

You take good care of your estate, welcome to the club!

BTW, sometimes people say they don't care about their legacy. I always have a hard time believing that. People love their egos, now and after moving on to a better place

Bree · Jan 2, 2022

Haydon said:
...after the decline, weird things began to happen. Or perhaps after those weird things happen, Yahoo began to decline. Difficult to say what is cause and what is effect.

Yahoo Mail was at one time very easy to hack into (and frequently was). For one thing, they were one of the last to switch from http to https for signing in. After the inevitable decline and fall they learned their lessons and have got much better. Today they are fully https and use two factor authentication. As such, I'm still happy to use my Yahoo Mail account.

humbird · Jan 2, 2022

Haydon said:
Good You take good care of your estate, welcome to the club!

BTW, sometimes people say they don't care about their legacy. I always have a hard time believing that. People love their egos, now and after moving on to a better place

TY, I do hope you get sorted out the way you would like it all to be, Bree is correct on yahoo's safer practices.

Haydon · Jan 2, 2022

Yahoo is one of my very few accounts where I configured the 2-FA system so that I can do 2-FA with 3 different devices. It gives me the ability to check the 2-FA system itself in different ways (more than 3 different ways). And yes, I still feel the need to take extra precautions with my (almost) dead account. YMMV

Wynona · Jan 2, 2022

Haydon said:
You can't really say that, Wynona, Yahoo in its heyday can be extremely useful, it had been for me.

But after the decline, weird things began to happen. Or perhaps after those weird things happen, Yahoo began to decline. Difficult to say what is cause and what is effect.

The most serious issue was the gigantic data breaches. Lucky me, I never filled in my profile.

Yahoo! data breaches - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

The second most serious security issue was the Yahoo groups. As a security precaution, I accessed them with a web browser, and I never had an incident. Nearly all others accessed the Yahoo groups with an email client, because the Yahoo group software offers a range of attractive delivery options to choose from, like individual emails, daily digest, etc. I personally never saw any incidents in the groups that I was involved in either (I co-owned 1 group, co-moderated 3 groups, and participated in up to 3 more groups, and yeah, that's a reflection how useful Yahoo was for me) However, Yahoo had a special group for group owners and group moderators. What gets posted in that special group makes you shudder.

The third most serious security issue was Yahoo email. As with the groups, I access Yahoo email with a web browser, and I never had an incident. There was a really really angry, really really big mob about Yahoo email, but after a while it was only noise and no signal, so I shut it out and don't really know what happened.

Yahoo closed down all groups a couple of years ago, and my use of Yahoo came to an end. So yeah, now there is a dead mouse in the attic, and how to get rid of it safely.