How to Find Those Old Online Accounts You Don’t Remember (2024)

What do you think: How many online accounts do you have? Well, there is Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Google, of course, Medium, MyFitnessPal, GitHub, Slack for work, oh and a couple of apps on your phone, maybe some accounts with some online shops…? But that‘s no more than 50, right?

Actually, that number is more likely in the hundreds. According to Dashlane, the average American had 150 online accounts in 2017, and they predicted that this number could reach 300 by 2022. It’s 2020 now, and each of us probably has more than 200 accounts—because of the ones we don’t even remember. Most of the online services and apps you use require an account setup. Even if you just want to quickly try something or look something up, you will create that account. And then forget about it. This forgetting-about-it part combined with weak and recycled passwords and companies selling your data creates significant security risks.

So it is important to be aware of the accounts you have, to delete the ones you don’t need or want anymore, to implement strong passwords and to think about what information you want to share. But how can you find those forgotten accounts? Below, I will share 8 steps so you can take back control of your data, find those lost accounts and consciously decide who you share your data with.

Identifying all online accounts under your name will take some time. To help you keep track of your search, start a list where you note down which account you found, what action you took, and the outcome: Did you, for example, change the password, delete the account, request deletion via e-mail, reset your password, never received an answer on the password reset or the deletion? Make sure you don’t add any passwords or any sensitive information to that list. Tracking the progress of your “security spring cleaning” will avoid that you check the same site twice or miss an account entirely. You can also use this list to do a repeat clean-up in the future, so keeping continuous track is key. However, tracking currently active accounts is easier using a password manager.