Shall I delete my Yahoo account?

I'm not sure why you even asked this question. Apparently, you have already made up your mind to keep it. Your examples about cars and mail are not how an email account works. If you close your Yahoo account, they will not pass on your personal info to anyone else. Yahoo may allow your old email address to be reused but the user would have to use their own info to sign up.

Well, there are quite knowledgeable people around here, especially when it comes to technical aspects of computers. But when it comes to Internet security ... not so much ... to my surprise.

Nonetheless, wishing you all safe computing for 2022 and beyond

Haydon said:

Well, there are quite knowledgeable people around here, especially when it comes to technical aspects of computers. But when it comes to Internet security ... not so much ... to my surprise.

Nonetheless, wishing you all safe computing for 2022 and beyond

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Happy New year to you too. I reread this thread and I think for your peace of mind you should keep your Yahoo account open. From your post I think you have already decided to keep it.

Well, as I wrote, eventually everything fades, even on the net. I am just not sure how long it takes for things to completely fade away.

You can consider yourself lucky. You wrote that you closed several of your email accounts without any incidences, none of your abandoned cars was used for a bank robbery so to speak.

It happened to me that one of my LIVE email accounts was used for questionable purposes, sufficient for me to report it to the authorities. They did nothing special for me, they already had their routine procedures in place

Identity theft is one of those bad things that the Internet amplifies a million times, because it is a million times easier to do, there is nobody on the Internet asking for your driver's license to identify yourself, for example. Of course, there are the equivalents to driver's licences like digital certificates, etc. but virtually nobody in the general population understands them if push comes to shove.

With a LIVE email account, it is easy to establish who is who, and yet the above happened. With an email account that now belongs to somebody else, that becomes more difficult, especially an email account that you have had for a very long time (decades).

To quote myself, eventually everything fades, even on the net. I am just not sure how long it takes for things to completely fade away. Somebody once said 'you never die on the Internet' ... not really a nice prospect in this regard. I wish that there were the digital equivalents to proper disposal procedures instead of just waiting for obsolescence.

If one is knowledgeable enough and has the right software, it is easy to spoof an email address or telephone number. I have received email that was supposed to be sent by me to me. When I check my email and I see a suspicious email from for examples from me to me or Discover Card, I hoover the mouse cursor over the name/email address that it is supposed to be from. This will show the real email address. If the address doesn't show a legit address, I delete it right away. When I closed my email accounts, I made sure to update my email address on all relevant sites. I don't see an email provider releasing a just closed email address without a reasonable waiting period. When they do and if the new owner missuses the address all digital footprints are going to trace back to their ISP unless they use a VPM. Either way it's not going to trace back to the previous owner.

Haydon said:

Folks, the real issue is misuse of my Yahoo name if it is reused
It could lead to a reuse of my Yahoo email address

On the other hand, keeping the Yahoo account/email address feels like keeping a dead mouse in the attic

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From what little research I've done on the issue, Yahoo will close your account and recycle your email addy if you haven't signed in for one year. This seems to have been going on since at least 2013.

And yes, I would consider this a security issue.

I have a friend who has not been able to get email since August 17 2021. She was comparing notes with another friend who had also lost her Yahoo email on August 17.

I am going back out there to see what else I can find.

I still use yahoo mail account. It has been working fine since 2002 when I set it up. I have had a few scares with yahoo being breached but nothing to leak really since I only use it for non essential things and my account was not breached. I change my password every 6 months for yahoo mail and have it set up to be delivered via windows mail. The only time I use their website is to change my password. I imagine if I was to drop yahoo mail I would not want them to reuse my address so I guess I will keep it for non essential mail.

Wynona said:

From what little research I've done on the issue, Yahoo will close your account and recycle your email addy if you haven't signed in for one year. This seems to have been going on since at least 2013.

And yes, I would consider this a security issue.

I have a friend who has not been able to get email since August 17 2021. She was comparing notes with another friend who had also lost her Yahoo email on August 17.

I am going back out there to see what else I can find.

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Yeah, and things do not have to be nefarious per se to become problematic, e.g. you are pro-life and the new owner of your Yahoo name is pro-choice > you get shunned by your church

Note that the above problem has nothing to do with emails that gets tracked back, etc. Although also reusing email address amplifies that problem.

humbird said:

...if I was to drop yahoo mail I would not want them to reuse my address so I guess I will keep it for non essential mail.

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Did you ever think about the possibility that a year after you die, your name and email address could be used by someone doing things that you or your heirs wouldn't agree with?

Not scaring your personally, this affects all of us.

Haydon said:

Did you ever think about the possibility that a year after you die, your name and email address could be used by someone doing things that you or your heirs wouldn't agree with?

Not scaring your personally, this affects all of us.

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There's lots of ways to set up something that your executor can take care of.

Edwin said:

There's lots of ways to set up something that your executor can take care of.

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Speakin of...,

Hey @z3r010 , if I kick the bucket, can we set it up so one of my kids PM's you and gives you permission to nuke all my junk?

Haydon said:

Yeah, and things do not have to be nefarious per se to become problematic, e.g. you are pro-life and the new owner of your Yahoo name is pro-choice > you get shunned by your church

Note that the above problem has nothing to do with emails that gets tracked back, etc. Although also reusing email address amplifies that problem.

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How would they know you email contacts? If you let all your contacts know you deleted your Yahoo account and give them your new email address, how would it be a problem?

Haydon said:

Did you ever think about the possibility that a year after you die, your name and email address could be used by someone doing things that you or your heirs wouldn't agree with?

Not scaring your personally, this affects all of us.

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I might get in trouble, but I have to say, please take off your tin foil hat and stop trying to scare people!

Winuser said:

I might get in trouble, but I have to say, please take off your tin foil hat and stop trying to scare people!

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No trouble from me, but you may want to adopt more realistic views for your own sake. It is like those burglaries that you see on TV and only happen to others. You may still want to keep your front door locked.

Edwin said:

Speakin of...,

Hey @z3r010 , if I kick the bucket, can we set it up so one of my kids PM's you and gives you permission to nuke all my junk?

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Some professional online forums provide some kind of 'discontinuance' provisions, not only in case of your death, but also in case of you leaving the profession. Pretty new, don't know how well it works. I am still member of a couple of professions in fact, and I haven't died yet, LOL

Haydon said:

Some professional online forums provide some kind of 'discontinuance' provisions, not only in case of your death, but also in case of you leaving the profession. Pretty new, don't know how well it works. I am still member of a couple of professions in fact, and I haven't died yet, LOL

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Anything of importance is stipulated in my will..., everything else is of no compromise to those I leave behind.

Edwin said:

Anything of importance is stipulated in my will..., everything else is of no compromise to those I leave behind.

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Well, whether it is in your will or in your lifetime, misuse prevention, like anything else, still depends on what's available. So, while I am still extremely busy in the biz of scaring people:

Real world availability: 99% prevention, 1% correction :)
Online world availability: 1% prevention, 99% correction

Government agencies all over the world are trying to improve on the latter but who knows when it will come to fruition

Haydon said:

No trouble from me, but you may want to adopt more realistic views for your own sake. It is like those burglaries that you see on TV and only happen to others. You may still want to keep your front door locked.

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I'm realistic enough to know that a closed Yahoo email account or any closed email account is not going to come back and bite me.

Haydon said:

...whether it is in your will or in your lifetime, misuse prevention, like anything else, still depends on what's available.

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When I'm alive, I'll keep an eye on it. When I'm dead, I won't give a sh*t.

Edwin said:

When I'm alive, I'll keep an eye on it. When I'm dead, I won't give a sh*t.

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Well, your survivors/loved ones may still give a sh*t about you

On the other hand, they may not give sh*t about you either