The haunting of an account forgotten
I have been a citizen of the internet since 07–08 (I am using the creation of my first email account as the citizenship criteria). Since then, I have created hundreds of accounts on as many sites. From StumbleUpon to MechQuest, they range across a wide variety of websites. Significant number of those accounts, I haven’t accessed in more than 6 months and are lying somewhere forgotten.
Canva.com was one such site. It provides a browser-based graphic tool, I had tried it out a few years ago, spent no more than 10 hours on it, and had made a mock book cover for a story. The tool was excellent, but not being one with artistic passions, I hadn’t visited the site since.
I have been a loyal user (sadly not a contributor) of Mozilla for most this time, thanks to having been introduced to it early on. I admired the work Mozilla Community and organizations did back then, and I love it now.
Early this year, I signed up for Firefox Monitor. It is a new service (not a product) that allows us to become aware and be on the lookout for breaches, which may involve your identity. It provides a registration-free search-like service, to see if your mail or name is part of a breach. Also, it allows us to register, in conjunction with your Firefox account(haha), a verified set of email ids.
On a visit to Firefox Monitor this week (triggered by the news of the Adobe Breach), it introduced me to the first breach with my data. The breach was for the Canva.com above. I am yet to deep dive into what all of my data was leaked. It has been a sobering reminder of the risks in having personal information on the internet. I have since deactivated the Canva account, but I still have to find a way to delete it, if it is even possible. I am now painfully aware that all the hundreds of accounts I have left all over the internet. And this may be the first in a line of forgotten accounts that are going to come back and haunt me. I don’t think it is a question of if, just a matter of when.
If you are reading this, you are on the internet. You may not be as careless as me, leaving stray accounts in forgettable corners. However, I would still recommend trying out Firefox Monitor. Even if you don’t register, visit once in a while. Make sure none of your data is leaked, and to know to what is.
As a closing note, to those who are working with software, take a look at Lean Data Practices and know them, so you are ready to deploy them when you are involved in such projects. To everyone, pop over to IRL(a podcast by Firefox), and listen to the episodes. All of them apply to you, although many times they may not appear so.
PS: Dived a little more into the breach. Here is Canva’s response page. They have given clear and concise details about their knowledge of breach and suggested steps to take in the aftermath, greatly appreciated.
Update: Jan 20th 2021
One more forgotten account for gonitro.com is again part of another breach. Thanks monitor again, for reminder to delete the account.
