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Email: recycle username?
- Thread starter AGX
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I've not heard of it either. That would pose some interesting and scary problems for people who used to use a certain account name.
I guess so. According to this year old article, both MS and Yahoo! do it.
Microsoft is quietly recycling Outlook email accounts
Microsoft is quietly recycling Outlook email accounts
Yeah, it does sound like a serious risk. The article says they have "measures" in place to prevent issues, but I don't know that I'd trust that - especially with Yahoo! Glad I don't have an account with them.
The only soluti in that Yahoo has taken is add a button to report and email as of the old user... A very useful method.... :-(
But if you use the old email for amazon, facebook, spotify etc... There is a serious privacy risk because the new user can revolver the account linked with the old user email.
In addition there is a risk for the privacy of deceased people!!!!
But if you use the old email for amazon, facebook, spotify etc... There is a serious privacy risk because the new user can revolver the account linked with the old user email.
In addition there is a risk for the privacy of deceased people!!!!
I hadn't heard of this before, and at least on the surface it seems like a bad idea. However as the internet goes on longer and longer most of the easy to remember usernames will be gone, so it does make sense to have a mechanism to allow them to be reused after enough time goes by without them being used.
Normally I'm all for RECYCLING, but this is one step to far.
This is one problem that I dont have, thankfully.
All my e-mail addresses are before 1997, in meantime the original provider has been absorbed into a larger corporation. The new e-mail addresses have the new name, the old addresses when discarded are deleted for good.
But in general the recycling of old e-mail addresses is a worrying fact, for internet security.
This is one problem that I dont have, thankfully.
All my e-mail addresses are before 1997, in meantime the original provider has been absorbed into a larger corporation. The new e-mail addresses have the new name, the old addresses when discarded are deleted for good.
But in general the recycling of old e-mail addresses is a worrying fact, for internet security.
270 days seems like a really short time. But I see no real issue with recycling an email name that has been inactive for like five years or something.
I'd like to clarify that recycling a user name, simply means making it availabe for someone else to take?
I could argue that if someone's name is involved, like jgreen or jim green, then it should remained locked, except how many J. Or Jim Green's are out there? Not advocating but maybe it is unfair to keep an abandoned name locked up? However, I agree that identity theft could be an issue. One of the reasons I switched to google email was for longevity, so that I did not have to change my email every time I moved and changed providers (using my cable company email).
I could argue that if someone's name is involved, like jgreen or jim green, then it should remained locked, except how many J. Or Jim Green's are out there? Not advocating but maybe it is unfair to keep an abandoned name locked up? However, I agree that identity theft could be an issue. One of the reasons I switched to google email was for longevity, so that I did not have to change my email every time I moved and changed providers (using my cable company email).