How to Delete Your Yahoo Account?
They have been several data breaches in the tech world over the last few years, but Yahoo has had a good share of those circumstances. On September 22, 2016, Yahoo disclosed that data from over 500 million Yahoo user accounts had been stolen by a third party. In December of the same year, they made another announcement of a separate breach which involved 1 billion Yahoo user accounts.
They later came with another announcement that the breach affected all their users at the time and the number of accounts attacked was 3 billion. All of these have made pushed many users into looking for ways to delete Yahoo account.
Table of Content
1 . What Does It Mean to Delete a Yahoo Mail Account?
2. How to Delete Yahoo Account?
3. When Will My Yahoo Email Account Be Deleted?
5. Which Data Was Stolen from Yahoo?
6. Has My Yahoo Mail Account Been Hacked?
8. How to Cancel A BT Yahoo Mail Premium Account?
With these in mind, it may be necessary that you delete your Yahoo account, at least until their attacks die down. And so in this article, you would be exposed to everything you need to know about closing your Yahoo account.
What Does It Mean to Delete a Yahoo Mail Account?
When you delete your Yahoo mail account, it goes beyond just removing your emails and losing access to your Yahoo account. Deleting your Yahoo account would also deny you access to ‘My Yahoo Settings’, ‘Flickr Account and Photos’, and every other data that you have stored under Yahoo services.
Interesting Read : How to Delete Your Facebook Account, Google Search History, and More
Subscriptions to yahoo services won’t stop even if you delete your yahoo account. So if you are paying for these services, cancel all subscriptions to avoid charges in the future. This is also applicable to you if you have a Flickr Pro Membership.
How to Delete Yahoo Account?
Since deleting your yahoo account will also result in losing every data stored there, ensure you download any important information you may need.
- With the yahoo ID, you want to delete, sign in to the Yahoo account termination page
- Read the information that would be displayed regarding terminating your account and then click on ‘continue’. Deleting your yahoo account will also take away your access to any service that is related to the account you are deleting.
- Enter the yahoo password to the account you want to delete, and click on ‘yes’ to delete the account.
- Finally, click ‘I understood’
With this, you have put the deletion process in progress. According to Yahoo, it takes 40 days for the deletion process to be complete. Its longer in some countries like Australia and New Zealand as they have 90 days. Brazil and Taiwan users have even longer days (180 days) for the process to be complete. After the account has been deleted, any emails sent would fail and the sender would receive a delivery failure notification.
If you however change your mind after deleting your yahoo account, you can reactivate it by simply logging in. This would only be effective if you log in within the 40 days or longer for countries that have a longer waiting period. Once reactivated, you would be able to send and receive emails again. Note that any emails that were sent while the account was closed would still not be seen as the sending failed.
It’s possible that even after you have deleted your account, some information may still be stored on the server. Visit yahoo’s data storage and anonymization support page to find out which information may be stored.
When Will My Yahoo Email Account Be Deleted?
After you have put the account deletion process in motion, you won’t have access to your emails and associated services anymore. Even though you have deleted it, the account remains in the server for a minimum of 40 days or more as already stated.
During this period, you can choose to reactivate your account if you want by logging in. doing nothing would mean sure deletion at the end of the waiting period. Once the account has been deleted, you won’t be able to recover it again.
Yahoo Data Breach
Yahoo has had its fair share of data breaches in which users’ information was stolen. On the 22nd of September 2016, yahoo announced that information from over 500 million users was stolen by a third party. Another breach occurred later that year and this time all users’ information was affected.
Which Data Was Stolen from Yahoo?
In both data breaches, personal information like names, dates of birth, email addresses, phone numbers, and in some cases the security questions and answers were stolen. Yahoo informed the public that the data breaches didn’t involve the account details or credit card information of its users.
Interesting Read : How to delete everything Google knows about you?
Yahoo announced that the attackers made forged cookies that allowed them to access users’ accounts without needing the passwords. The forged cookies have all been invalidated and the affected users have been notified.
Has My Yahoo Mail Account Been Hacked?
After the breach, yahoo contacted all affected account users, so if yahoo didn’t reach out to you, chances are that your account wasn’t affected.
To know if your account has been hacked, check the following behavior of your yahoo mail:
- Receiving a lot of spam
- Not getting emails
- Your contacts are complaining that you are sending spam to them
- Receiving login notifications from unknown places
What Are My Rights?
If you had a yahoo account between the years 2012 and 2016 and were contacted by yahoo telling you that your account was determined to be compromised, you may be entitled to some amount of money.
Interesting Read : How to delete skype account?
After victims of the data breach brought a class-action lawsuit against Yahoo, they agreed to pay more than $117 million to the victims. By this, the affected users can either opt for 2 years of free credit monitoring or a cash payment of $358. For your claims, contact the settlement coordinator.
How to Cancel A BT Yahoo Mail Premium Account?
If you got your yahoo account using British Telecommunications (BT), simply deleting your yahoo account would not cancel the service. To cancel a BT account, however, contact BT directly so your yahoo mail premium account can be deleted.
FAQ
1 . What Will Happen to My Yahoo Mail Username and Email Address?
After your account has been deleted from yahoo’s servers, your username and email address may become available for anyone else to use in the future. So if someone sends a message to your old address, another user would receive it.
2. Can I Reactivate a Closed Yahoo Mail Account?
Yes, you can by simply logging in within 40 days after you had deleted it. Logging in would reactivate the account and you would begin to receive emails sent to your address. You wouldn’t get any emails that were sent while the account was closed, however.
3. What Happens to Emails Sent to My Address After I Close My Yahoo Mail Account?
After you have closed your yahoo account, anyone who tries to send a message would receive a notification of message delivery failed.
Conclusion
Data breaches are very common and pose a threat to your privacy and security and so you must take steps to protect yourself. Deleting your yahoo account could prevent you from data leaks if there are any attacks in the future, although it’s unlikely.
For internet privacy and security, you should use a VPN when connecting to the internet. Limevpn is a top choice and has great features that ensure you stay protected and anonymous as you use the web. There are various IPs for you to choose from in different locations, and by this, you can also have access to geo-blocked content.
Choosing another IP as you connect to the internet hides your real identity and keeps you anonymous. Its 256-bit encryption ensures your security and keeps your data strictly between you and the intended receiver. So no third party or hacker can have access to your shared data.
Rachael Chapman
A Complete gamer and a Tech Geek. Brings out all her thoughts and love in writing blogs on IOT, software, technology etc
