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Recently I decided to take stock of the various websites for which I have an access account, consisting of either a username and password or, more commonly, an email address and password.

This was driven in part by my setting out to test 1Password, a password manager service based in Canada, but also by a need to address the bad habit of reusing some passwords across multiple sites.

For more than a decade Ive been using a British product, My1Login, as my password manager. I will hold off on a comparison of the two password services for now and focus instead on another aspect that surfaced as I began testing 1Password.

As I set out to test 1Password, I found that I had 232 separate accounts stored in my long-time management program. These covered a wide range of areas, from home services (banking, utilities, etc.), education sites (primarily for physics and computer science), and on to hobby sites (amateur radio, space, weather, etc.).

With the very first site I tested, I came to realize that, as happens with bricks and mortar businesses, some of these web services have shut down, likely after declaring bankruptcy. What I wasnt prepared for was the sheer number of sites in my password manager that now no longer existed.

Fifty sites! And Im not quite through examining all 232 of my sites. Thats 50 sites that have vanished, taking with them my username/email address and a password, perhaps for some even a birthdate. In some cases of cloud storage services, theyve also taken data I was storing with them. None of this lost data was of particular importance, as I was only testing those storage sites.

Here then is a small selection of the now 50+ sites for which I had accounts at one time and that have now moved into oblivion, or in a small number of cases, have completely rebranded:

You get the idea. There is no shortage of once-vibrant internet properties that no longer exist. Who knows what becomes of the customer databases when these companies shut down or are pressed into bankruptcy! Are the databases wiped? Are they resold? Do creditors seize them and resell them, perhaps even on the so-called dark web?

Among the couple of hundred sites then, for which I have or had accounts, only in a handful of instances have I ever encountered an option to delete an account. Ive written a few sites on occasion asking for an account deletion option, only to be told that there isnt one.

Given how prevalent password reuse is, it is easy to understand why there is value in the databases of extinct companies. Do yourself a favour. Every now and then check out the internet accounts you have. See if you can shut down accounts you no longer use. If there is no option to delete an account, which almost surely is the case, send a note to the company requesting deletion. And use a unique password for each site or service!

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Internet sites come and go, but what about your login information? - The B.C. Catholic