While closing an old email account can help you stay organized, deleting Yahoo Mail may actually be a security requirement, particularly in light of previous security lapses. In order to streamline digital management and lessen your digital footprint, delete any outdated or unused emails as they tend to attract spam. However, the process of deleting your Yahoo account is irreversible – back up all your important information first.
How to delete a Yahoo account
If you delete your Yahoo email account, you will also lose My Yahoo settings, Flickr account and photos, Yahoo Messenger and other data related to your Yahoo account. Make sure you download any information you might need later before ending your Yahoo email account. Verify that you are certain that you want to close your Yahoo email account.
To remove your Yahoo account, take the following actions:
- Log in to your Yahoo account.
- Open “Subscriptions.”
- Make sure you don’t have any active subscriptions before deleting your account.
- Next, navigate to the Yahoo account cancellation website.
- Press “Continue delete my account.”
- Once your email address has been entered, click “Yes, close this account.”
According to Yahoo, the removal process can take several days or even weeks to finish, and it might take longer in some nations. After you terminate the account, any emails sent to this Yahoo account will bounce back with a delivery failure message.
Yahoo also says that even when the account is completely closed, some of your information “may possibly remain” in their systems. To find out more about which information might be stored, visit Yahoo’s Data Storage and Anonymization support page.
How to reactivate a Yahoo account
To reactivate your Yahoo mail account, all you need to do is log back in with your original login details. After confirming your recovery details, you’ll need to create a new password.
Once you delete your Yahoo account, you’ll have 30 days to change your mind. Your former account will be permanently deleted when the 30-day period has passed, and there will be no way to retrieve it. Even though a 30-day delay is typical throughout much of the world, be sure to confirm the rules in your own nation. Users from Australia and New Zealand, for instance, have ninety-nine days to get their accounts back.
Should you delete your Yahoo account?
Yahoo has a poor security record, so a user can’t be blamed for wanting to close their Yahoo account.
- Verizon, an Internet service provider that battled for the right to sell your search history to unaffiliated parties, acquired Yahoo. Yahoo Mail also scans your messages in order to show you personally relevant offers based on the information it has gathered on you.
- Almost one in seven people on Earth had their Yahoo account data compromised between 2013 and 2014.
- In 2017, Yahoo issued another data security warning. In 2015 and 2016, 32 million Yahoo email addresses were impacted by forged browser cookies, as opposed to over a billion email addresses being compromised.
Hackers typically search databases for compromised login credentials and attempt to access other websites using email addresses that have been made public online. A data breach might potentially jeopardize all of your accounts if you happen to use the same login information for multiple of them.
We recommend that you check the strength of your password and see if it has ever been compromised, even if you don’t believe that any information related to your account has been compromised. Additionally, you may determine if any other past data breaches have resulted in the compromise of your password.
How to use a Yahoo account safely
Yahoo has experienced numerous significant data breaches. Given that over a billion accounts have been compromised, it becomes sense that some consumers might think twice before opening a Yahoo account. It’s preferable to be proactive about online security in general rather than depending on Yahoo’s protection. These are some of the greatest methods for maintaining your online safety if you use a Yahoo account.
Use a password manager.
Using an encrypted vault that is only accessible by you, a password manager totally secures the passwords to all of your accounts. Software like NordPass can generate complex passwords so you don’t have to. When prompted, the passwords will also autofill the correct criteria, meaning you don’t need to memorize complicated strings of letters, numbers and symbols.
Exercise caution online.
Hackers and cybercriminals will employ social engineering to persuade you into handing out identifying data, or even accidently divulging your account login details.
Furthermore, stay away from clicking links in unsolicited emails as they can direct users to browser hijackers. It could be a sign of malicious software modifying your browser’s settings if your search engine keeps switching to Yahoo or other strange websites. Use reliable antivirus software and check your browser’s settings and extensions on a regular basis to avoid this.
