User data is invaluable to companies, and the amount of information they can glean from even occasional activity is absolutely staggering. Since the data itself comes from you and your actions, you would be right in thinking that you’re entitled to have that data removed once you delete your account (or, better yet, on demand).
Unfortunately, having your data completely purged upon exit is much more of a privilege than a right — or so it would seem if your only frame of reference is informed by social media — which is why a web service called Secured.fyi put together a “naughty list” of companies that won’t delete part (or all) of your data.
Secured.fyi organizes guilty services by two main categories: whether or not the service will clear your data upon account deletion, and whether or not you can opt out of tracking even after deleting your account.
Services which don’t erase your information when you delete your account get a “No” in the corresponding category; they’ll receive a “Yes” in the “Tracking” category if they continue to track your activity after you’ve deleted your account.
The list itself looks about like what you would expect: well-known offenders such as LinkedIn and Facebook share spots one and two on the list, respectively, while a handful of other companies’ services make up the rest of the top ten.
Recognizable among the worst offenders are Outlook, Slack, Facebook Messenger, and — of course — anything by Yahoo, including both their email service and their now-defunct messaging app.
The good news is that the majority of the services listed on Secured.fyi do allow you to delete your account, after which there are several proactive measures you can take (e.g., changing your phone number, using a different email address to sign into other services, etc.) to prevent post-use tracking.
This is a relief when compared to services such as iCloud (and the related Apple ID) and Square, as neither of these accounts will allow you to delete your data or your account itself.
There is also a long, comprehensive list of sites which don’t track you and will delete your data toward the midpoint of Secured.fyi’s compilation if you’re interested in some good news.
Jack Lloyd has a BA in Creative Writing from Forest Grove's Pacific University; he spends his writing days using his degree to pursue semicolons, freelance writing and editing, oxford commas, and enough coffee to kill a bear. His infatuation with rain is matched only by his dry sense of humor.
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