2022-03-20

Digital Detox of sorts

#life

One of the things I'm painfully aware, is the sheer amount of online identities that I have collected over the years. There number surpassed the 100 mark recently. When I teach classes, I ask the attendees to create a list of all their important, un-important, funny, forgotten IDs for themselves. They are always surprised, how many they have.

ploum has written that he is quite rigorous when it comes to unwanted email:

I’m an inbox 0 extremist. I unsubscribe from everything that contains an unsubscribe link. I spent the last two years sending GDPR removing requests to every company sending me an unwanted email. The first three months were completely exhausting but once I did the first bulk, it became more rigorous hygiene.

gemini://rawtext.club/~ploum/2021-10-20.gmi

local copy

After reading that, I took action on a number of unwanted newsletters. And these days I continued to clean up old and not any more needed accounts. Many did not work any more, which is ok with me. Several I could delete through web access, and others I had to go through some hoops to request the deletion via some support mechanism. Some have already responded, which is nice.

The "not-working/deleted" list currently has 38 items. More noteable entries are:

• ebay --- This account was always broken, and possibly used once when setting it up (probably in 2013).
• linkedin --- I tried this in an attempt to find a few old acquaintances in South America, but I failed miserably. When Microsoft took it over, I deleted it (2016).
• cacert.org --- If memory serves me well, I joined in 2005 on Linux-Tag in Berlin. But I actually never had the need for a credible certificate. So I requested deletion now.
• gitlab.com --- I moved my stuff to sourcehut.org, thanks Drew! I still have a github account, but that can go soonish as well.
• humblebundle.com --- I ordered a few book bundles there. I did read some of it, but let's face it, I'm not going to read everything I have purchased. My reading has become quite a bit slower. And I'm not going to be a self made devop or secop or design pattern buff ... at least not in the future that I can forsee.
• seeedstudio.com --- very easy to set up, very easy to order something. But then payment failed, and since I don't paypal, there wasn't anything that could be done. Needless to say, there is no "delete my account" button. So I have requested deletion through their support. I am, however, not overly optimistic.
• forums.sifive.com --- I had my share of fun with them, see

/en/2021/20210612-i-hate-fora.gmi

• packstation --- I reported that they require a smartphone app to pick up something from the automatic parcel pickup. I deleted the account now.

/en/2022/20220208-bye-bye-packstation.gmi

• firstgate.de --- anyone remember this? A micropayment thing connected to a regular bank account. This has been dead for ages, just interesting from a historical point of view, I think.

Should the need actually arise, I can definitely recreate any of these accounts, right? And until then I rest assured, that I do not have to keep track of them any more. Whether or not they are really really deleted, I cannot say, of course. And some of them will continue to exist in data backup locations and technology.

Thanks to all the kind souls helping out at various support places, actually marking my accounts for deletion!

Bye bye accounts, may the goddesses of bit-ly nirvana be merciful.

Cheers,

~ew

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