Through your activity on the Internet you leave a trace known as a digital footprint. The large technology companies that you use their services or the companies that advertise in them to finance themselves drink from the data that you generate as a user. Some of these have long been stored like a cyst because you once signed up for a social network that now bores you, a money making app that paid you a few beers, or an online photo editor that you only enjoyed the free trial of. These are zombie accounts that all they do is fill your inbox with spam.
All people have the right to remove their data as an Internet user and that is why it is enough to formally request the data protection officer of the companies to which you offered them to delete them. However, there are more effective and guaranteed ways to take care of your digital footprint. There are applications that will help you retrace your steps and locate those accounts that you no longer use and, thanks to their simplicity, you will be able to overcome the laziness that prevents you from having a pristine digital profile.
Guide to delete an account
These online applications will make your life easier when it comes to getting rid of your inactive internet accounts. You will only need to do a little memory to recognize the sites and passwords you created before facing their extensive lists:
1 ElimÃname is an initiative of the specialized cybersecurity media Derecho en la Red, which compiles a list of more than 50 popular websites where it is likely that you have created an account. It has a simple interface whereby clicking on the name of any of them will take you directly to the page to cancel the corresponding subscription. 2 An improved version of the above would be JustDelete.me. On this page it is possible to navigate through a much more extensive list of links to delete or deactivate your digital profiles. In addition, it includes brief information pills to help you delete some of your accounts, offers the possibility of installing its extension for Google Chrome and indicates the level of difficulty to unsubscribe from each service. This process can be simple, of medium difficulty, difficult or impossible, as there will be profiles that cannot be deleted 3 AccountKiller is the most complete and sophisticated alternative. This website creates guides with instructions to help the user delete accounts that are no longer needed or have become obsolete. His multiple posts are categorized into his black and white lists, based on the difficulty of the removal process. AccountKiller also offers personalized attention by email and it is even possible to propose new sites for them to investigate how they are deleted. read also
Bonus track: Facebook, Twitter y Google
Another manual way to get rid of useless accounts is to check which ones you signed up for via Facebook, Twitter, or Google. In the settings menu of these pages, you can see the applications with which they share information and data from your profile, to which you gave them access at the time of registration. Luckily, you can delete or at least unlink these apps with just one click.
Search history, locations or even audio recordings are other data that condition your Internet browsing and depend on them, for example, the ads you see when you accept cookies from a site. Through the My Activity menu of your Google account, you can configure that the data from YouTube and the rest of the technology giant’s applications are automatically deleted every 3, 18 or 36 months and thus maintain the care of your digital footprint.
