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Comment by brnt | Hacker News Reader

Not much, since I have successfully degoogled myself. Even deleted my mail address created with an invite back in 2004.

The only use I occasionally get out of it is a shared document with somebody.

What's the point of removing old addresses? I mean I'm all for privacy, but forward all your old accounts to one funnel account and ensure you never lose that data.

Not keeeping your account is a security hazard. If someone else would be able to use it, he now has access to some password resets. Or just call a support agent to restore the old email address.

Same with getting a new phone number

If an account is deleted can an account with the sane name be created afterwards ? Because in some ways that would be worse.

Not on Gmail, but there certainly are email providers that allow a username to be recycled after a certain period of time. Notable example is Yahoo, which recycles usernames that haven't been active for a year: https://yahoo.tumblr.com/post/52805929240/yournameyahoocom-c...

Google does not allow anyone else to register the name ever again, so there's no risk of identity theft. The main reason is to remove cruft I don't need or use.

That is good to know, thanks. Someone in Google gave me an invite three years before GMail was formally released publicly, so I have my name. There might be a point when I cancel my account and it would be great to be protected from someone claiming my old email address.

I like paid for Google services like GCP, Play movies and books, etc., but I want my online identity and all communications to be through my domain.

Care to share the tools you use instead?

Apart from email, which can be hosted in a myriad of places, I tend to use etherpad/calc and nextcloud. I guess I was not a heavy user of Googles services for quite some time.

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