It isn't really feasible for a service like this, but it would be interesting to know what each of these sites do with your data once your account is deleted. Facebook has recently come under fire for their ghost profiles and I can't imagine they are the only company that keeps data on people who aren't official users.
That sounds great. The only problem is that you just have to accept the word of whatever PR person you talk to at these companies. Not that I really expect them to flat out lie to you, but I wouldn't necessarily expect the whole and complete truth either.
You attempted to reach tosdr.org, but instead you actually reached a server identifying itself as *.5apps.com. This may be caused by a misconfiguration on the server or by something more serious. An attacker on your network could be trying to get you to visit a fake (and potentially harmful) version of tosdr.org.
The only protection against this is to first anonymize your account data, e.g. by entering bogus or empty detail information. Maybe even change your email address to a temporary throwaway address, in case it is needed to complete your account "deletion".
Of course, they could have saved the previous versions of all profiles. But at least you're making it harder for them to check which version was the "correct" one (i.e. the one that has any value on market of personal profiles for spammers, marketing, etc.)
Since the site doesn’t need anything except a static list in a .json, it would make sense to use a static website generator (e.g. Jekyll) instead of an index.php which loads the JSON file.
I don't see how doing that deletes your account or your data for that matter. From what I understand it just shows you content that was 'supposedly' deleted but in fact it was just hidden.
> JustDelete.Me is a directory of urls to delete your account from web services. (Yes, I am aware how terrible that description is. If you’ve got a better one, let me know).
How about a variation of "Helping you delete your web accounts"
There used to be a feature rather much like that on the (now defunct) Internet Junkbuster site.
A pretty simple set of form letters you could automatically fill out and have submitted to the major credit bureaus, marketing agencies, and the (then) handful of companies which maintained active marketing lists.
I printed and mailed a small sheaf of letters based on this during the summer of 2001. A month or so later, 9/11 hit, followed by the anthrax mailing scare. I was rather happy to have had far less junk mail to sort through, given the mood of the times -- every piece of mail not received was one more bit of dread avoided.
The results of that persisted for years. I've also avoided using permanent change-of-address forms from the USPS (the data from that is used to, you guessed it, update marketing lists). Having dropped use of credit cards, I've had no credit report for years (occasionally a minor hassle, but actually somewhat nice), and what data does exist is a very jumbled scramble of mostly highly outdated addresses and locations. I prefer it that way.
Why do people expect data about themselves to magically disappear from the Internet? One should always assume that everything you communicate online (explicitly or not) has the potential to exist forever.
Because we are talking about proper legal entities here. If I want my data deleted, they should have the means an the will to do so. Nothing "magical" at all.
It is not as if I am asking "the internet" to delete my stuff, but "facebook", "google" or "okcupid".
If they agreed that they would delete everything they know about you at your request, sure. But most of them don't, which means you can't do anything.
Companies should not be forced to implement ways to delete data about users. That's just silly.
Why do you want them to delete the data anyway? To me, it sounds silly and looks like some kind of censorship. Embrace transparency and live with the fact that what is public remains public.
> JustDelete.Me is a directory of urls to delete your account from web services. (Yes, I am aware how terrible that description is. If you’ve got a better one, let me know).
Sounds like a fine description to me. (It's certainly better than average. I find the descriptions of about half of the "take a look at this site" posts on HN to be incomprehensible; it's nice to be able to read a post like this and immediately know what it is talking about.)
So, is something wrong with this description? If so, can anyone tell me what the problem is?
Topsy appears to offer a data deletion service at accountremoval@topsy.com. Try asking them to delete their online archive of a defunct G+ account. (Defunct means that the G+ account and its content is deleted.) The service autoresponds to your email entreaty, but nothing is deleted. I have been emailing them for two weeks. The reply is the same:
Re: Please delete my G+ content. I have deleted my G+ account
Topsy Support | AUG 18, 2013 | 09:22PM UTC
Thank you for submitting your request. We have received
your request and are working on responding to you as
soon as possible. If you have any additional information
to add to this case, please reply to this email.
I find it extremely frustrating that services like Gravatar and forums didn't inform me that I won't be able to wipe clean my account. It is not acceptable.
Especially gravatar which is capable of building a profile across every website that uses them without caching avatar images locally. Even for non-users, even retroactively.
There's a reason why I add some "+semirandomstring" to the userpart of my email address when writing comments (and hope that "helpful" services don't strip it out before md5'ing it for gravatar).
I wish to see a similar site made for changing passwords.
One use case is when the password storage is compromised but also helps when you grow more paranoid over time and need to rotate and max out the passwords.
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http://wikicancel.org/
Not that that'd be much better than a PR rep, but it'd be easier to get at least.
We're trying to do that already at http://tosdr.org, please join in (http://github.com/tosdr) and http://tosback.org
Edit: Hm I thought 5apps supported https already, i guess i was wrong
You attempted to reach tosdr.org, but instead you actually reached a server identifying itself as *.5apps.com. This may be caused by a misconfiguration on the server or by something more serious. An attacker on your network could be trying to get you to visit a fake (and potentially harmful) version of tosdr.org.
Of course, they could have saved the previous versions of all profiles. But at least you're making it harder for them to check which version was the "correct" one (i.e. the one that has any value on market of personal profiles for spammers, marketing, etc.)
In my profile, what does showdead do?
If you turn it on, you'll see all the submissions and comments that have been killed by the editors. They're mostly spam and duplicates.
How about a variation of "Helping you delete your web accounts"
Won't work either but, like this, it's a nice start.
A pretty simple set of form letters you could automatically fill out and have submitted to the major credit bureaus, marketing agencies, and the (then) handful of companies which maintained active marketing lists.
I printed and mailed a small sheaf of letters based on this during the summer of 2001. A month or so later, 9/11 hit, followed by the anthrax mailing scare. I was rather happy to have had far less junk mail to sort through, given the mood of the times -- every piece of mail not received was one more bit of dread avoided.
The results of that persisted for years. I've also avoided using permanent change-of-address forms from the USPS (the data from that is used to, you guessed it, update marketing lists). Having dropped use of credit cards, I've had no credit report for years (occasionally a minor hassle, but actually somewhat nice), and what data does exist is a very jumbled scramble of mostly highly outdated addresses and locations. I prefer it that way.
Edit: Also, you should try to collaborate with the TOSDR guys, they have a pretty active IRC channel: #tosdr on Freenode.
Either way, good job!
eharmony -> only cancel membership
match -> only cancel membership
coffee meet bagel -> only cancel membership
truffle -> delete accounts
okcupid -> will delete account
It is not as if I am asking "the internet" to delete my stuff, but "facebook", "google" or "okcupid".
Companies should not be forced to implement ways to delete data about users. That's just silly.
Why do you want them to delete the data anyway? To me, it sounds silly and looks like some kind of censorship. Embrace transparency and live with the fact that what is public remains public.
> JustDelete.Me is a directory of urls to delete your account from web services. (Yes, I am aware how terrible that description is. If you’ve got a better one, let me know).
Sounds like a fine description to me. (It's certainly better than average. I find the descriptions of about half of the "take a look at this site" posts on HN to be incomprehensible; it's nice to be able to read a post like this and immediately know what it is talking about.)
So, is something wrong with this description? If so, can anyone tell me what the problem is?
There's a reason why I add some "+semirandomstring" to the userpart of my email address when writing comments (and hope that "helpful" services don't strip it out before md5'ing it for gravatar).
One use case is when the password storage is compromised but also helps when you grow more paranoid over time and need to rotate and max out the passwords.