Online Security – Web Account Upkeep

Old web accounts store your old personal data

Clean up stale website personal data.

The less personal material about you on the Internet, the lower your personal cyber risk. So, now is a good time to clean up those stale, unused accounts and reduce useless online personal information.

To get started, take an inventory of your online accounts. To jog your memory, start by using your browser’s record-keeping:

1. Chrome Browser: click in upper right → Settings → Passwords.
2. Or Safari Browser: click Preferences → Passwords.
3. And if you have used your Facebook login credentials to login elsewhere, login at the Facebook website, click the triangle on the top right of any page, then Settings → Apps & Websites.
4. And if you have used your Google login credentials to login elsewhere, login at the Google website, click the grid icon at the top right, then Account → Security → Signing in with Google.
5. And search yourself with Google and Bing (i.e. your user IDs, name, address, telephone, etc.). You can also search occurrences of your usernames at www.knowem.com.
6. And check every smartphone app.
7. And take a quick tour through your received email. Search for phrases such as “welcome to”, “password”, “new account” and “confirm your email.”,

Just in case, also check some commonly used websites, such as:
Airlines (American, Delta, United, etc.), Apple, Banks / Credit Unions (Chase, Bank of America, etc.), Craigslist, Dropbox, eBay, Facebook, FedEx, Google, Groupon, Healthcare (Blue Shield, Cigna, ZocDoc, etc.), Hotels (Marriott, Comfort Inns, Hilton, etc.), Internet Service Providers (Spectrum, GoDaddy, etc.), Intuit, Jdate, LinkedIn, Lyft, Match, Meetup, Mint, Mobile Phone (AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, etc.), Netflix, PayPal, Publications (Wall Street Journal, NY Times, etc.), Spotify, Starbucks, Tax Services (TurboTax), Ticketmaster, Twitter, Uber, US Postal Service, UPS, Vimeo, Yahoo…….

Now, delete or cleanse stale digital haunts and data. For example, delete your Google+ account, because it is now defunct. Here’s some “cleansing” guidance:
● Remove unnecessary data.
● Delete if unused or no longer needed.
● Remove password duplicates (if you are using a password manager, these are easy to identify).
● Remove any unnecessary third-party access (e.g. does that site really need access to my Facebook profile?).

Finally, consider using the DeleteMe feature at www.abine.com to delete your personal information from search engines (like Google) – it will clean out name, address, age, phone number and email address. DeleteMe is also available as an app on Google Play for Android smartphones.

FOR FURTHER READING:
CyberGuardian: a SecureTheVillage Guide for Residents is available on Amazon.
A complete Security Checklist is available: https://www.nerdsiview.com/security-checklist-2/
References for Village Residents are available at SECURE THE VILLAGE: https://securethevillage.org/residents

Supplemental Articles:
How to Search and Destroy Your Old Accounts, Consumer Reports, October 2019.

 © Alan Steven Krantz 2021