In these predominantly digital times, it's all too easy to build up a long trail of unused accounts that are now gathering dust: free trials that you never followed up on, streaming services you abandoned, on-demand clothing boxes that in the end weren't quite what you were looking for, and so on. In some ways these old accounts aren't doing any harm besides gathering virtual dust or sending you the occasional email nag. But having too many dormant logins can cause problems from a security perspective. Consider what would happen if the developer behind the app suddenly went rogue, or if the hackers breached the service's database.
Not only would personal details like your email address or even home address get exposed, it might also give bad actors a route into your bigger, more important, more sensitive accounts. That's either because you've used a major service to log into the smaller one, or because you're sharing usernames and passwords between different accounts—something you shouldn't do for this very reason.
The more unused, unloved accounts you've got hanging around, the more targets would-be hackers have got to aim at. It's therefore good practice to tidy up the digital trail you leave behind you, and shut down accounts you're not regularly using. Unfortunately, there's no big button you can press to do this all at once, but with a little bit of detective work and a few minutes of your spare time, you can effectively erase your tracks.
Support the originator by clicking the read the rest link below.
