How to find and delete all your old unused accounts

We all have more or less accounts that we use more on the web. These pose a great security threat to your personal data. Here's how to clean it up.

We all have accounts that we no longer use, but some apps and sites make deleting them rather complicated. In these cases, ignoring them altogether may seem like the easiest solution. However, unused accounts pose great security threats – indeed, it only takes one security breach or some kind of data theft to potentially compromise your personal data, banking information or even private files.

The only problem is that, most of the time, we do not remember the accounts in question. Whether it's a site you bought a product from once X years ago, a time-tested streaming site for a free trial, or a social media profile, we have all more or less unused accounts. Fortunately, there are some helpful resources for finding, recovering, and deleting these unwanted accounts.

Step 1: find your unused accounts

If you can't remember all the accounts you have, the first step is to list them. There are a number of places to look to retrieve credentials and you should check them one by one as it is very unlikely that all of your accounts created over the years are stored in one place.

The first place to look is your web browser. Most modern browsers can save logins from sites you visit, and you can easily find saved accounts from the settings menu. Here's how:

Password managers can also store your credentials. Be sure to shop around for any IDs, if you use one.

Many sites and applications allow you to identify yourself via your Apple ID, Facebook, Google, Instagram or Twitter account. Each third-party service connected to these accounts counts as a separate account. It is therefore also necessary to check the lists to see the authorized accesses:

You should also find your accounts using the same usernames or email addresses on HaveIBeenPwned.com. You can complete with checkusernames.com, knowem.com, namecheck.com and usersearch.org, by filling in your old pseudonyms. More simply, entering your identifiers on Google can also give you an idea of ​​the sites on which they have been used.

Finally, check your files on your phone, your PC or in the cloud where you are used to registering identifiers to find them if necessary.

Step 2: recover passwords

Once you know which apps and sites you have accounts on, the next step is to recover said accounts. It's easy if you have the password, in your browser or a password manager, or if you remember it. Otherwise, it must be retrieved.

Login pages usually have an option to retrieve a username, password and/or email address. This only works if you still have access to the email address or, more rarely, the phone number used to create the account. If this is not the case, you will have to contact the site or application directly.

Step 3: Delete Accounts

In an ideal world, abandoned accounts would delete themselves after a long period of non-use, but most of the time they just sit there, waiting for their owner to delete them permanently. Which they don't because they forget they have an account, or the process is too complex. No matter how complex the operation, large companies must comply with privacy laws, which give users the right to delete their data and erase their accounts. You still need to know where to look.

If these processes tend to be simplified, thanks in particular to these different laws, it may happen that we cannot find a way to do it. In this case, a simple search on the web should tell you. You are certainly not the first or the first to want to delete an account on any site.

Most of the time, deleting an account can be initiated in the settings. Look in the “Account”, “Profile”, or “Privacy” menus, once you are logged in.

Now, chances are you're here precisely because you've already looked for a "delete account" button, and couldn't find it, but there are other places to search, like the help, forums or FAQs. If these resources do not exist, you can also look for the terms of use. These are normally public. Do a search on the words “deletion”, “deactivation”, “cancellation”, “erasure”, you should find the relevant section.

Still haven't found it? Last option, in this case. Contact the company by email, phone or through its social media accounts. In most cases, you'll find steps to delete your account before you get to that point, but don't forget that last option.