Privacy

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A place to discuss privacy and freedom in the digital world.

Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.

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I want to delete my Google account but i have a specific fear (lemmy.ml)

submitted 2 months ago by intothesky@lemmy.ml to c/privacy@lemmy.ml

15 comments fedilink hide all child comments

What if i forget to delete some old accounts associated with the google email address? Will someone be able to take control of them? And my data will be there forever too.

What method do you use to find the old accounts to delete? Unfortunately i delete all emails after receiving them.

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[–] MangoPenguin@lemmy.blahaj.zone 14 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Why delete the account? There's no harm is just leaving it and not using it anymore.

[–] utopiah@lemmy.ml 5 points 2 months ago (1 children)

To not rely on it anymore? Not be tempted?

I suggest to delete it but giving yourself a grace period, e.g 1 year where you redirect emails until you are sure you updates most people and services accordingly. After that period, better to delete and this way hope that Google doesn't have any of your data anymore.

[–] K4mpfie@feddit.org 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Gmail really is a drug, huh?

Nobody goes like" Oh fuck I can't take it anymore I just need another hit of Google Lens"

Keeping accounts for key services is a smart idea because at least you will always be able to take control if you need to. Also identity theft gets harder

[–] utopiah@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 month ago

Look at /r/deGoogle and you will, sadly, see a lot of people that have a problem stopping.

A typical example is how services from Google, e.g Google Docs, Meet, etc do everything they can to avoid not logging in, and while having to do so, prefer to use a GMail acccount, or "at least" a Google account (which might not require a GMail email).

So... a drug no but a dependency hard to ignore for a lot of people, the same way some people feel "forced" to use WhatsApp.

You are extremely privileged if you never felt that way.