Are you looking for information on how to delete a Yahoo account? Perhaps it's an old account that you're no longer using, or you're worried about how it'll put your privacy at risk. In any case, Yahoo does not make the process easy for average users. It's not like there's an option inside your email account that gets rid of everything — or is there?
In this article, we'll go over everything you need to know about deleting your Yahoo account. This includes citing a few perfectly good reasons for doing so and the specific steps that you need to take. You will find that the process isn't nearly as complicated as it seems if you know exactly what to look out for.
If you’re concerned about putting your privacy at risk, read: What’s My IP Address and Why Should I Protect It?
What Is Yahoo?
Yahoo is an American web services company that primarily offers a search engine and email service to users. First incorporated in 1995, it was at one time the most popular email service provider on the Internet. Unfortunately, their user base stagnated over time, and according to Statista (a German online portal for statistics), 26% of people use Yahoo mail.
As of 2018, Yahoo has 227.8 million monthly active users, most of which belong to the 55–65+ age group. While that may sound like a lot, that pales in comparison to Google, which has over 1.5 billion active users around the world.
Why Should I Delete My Yahoo Account?
Now is it truly necessary to delete an old Yahoo account? If you're not using it anymore, then why not just forget about it? While that is certainly an option, you'd want to consider the fact that the biggest reason why you'd want to delete an old Yahoo account has to do with the reason why it has stagnated over the years.
Simply put, Yahoo has proven time and again that it's incapable of protecting the personal information of users. The organization has been the target of various data breaches over the years resulting in several class-action lawsuits. Also, there have been reports that Yahoo secretly scans the emails of users and forwards the information to the NSA (National Security Agency).
Considering all that has happened, users have good reason to be concerned about their privacy and should be scrambling to delete their Yahoo accounts. Follow the steps below to remove your details.
How to Delete Your Yahoo Account Permanently
- Sign In
If you haven’t already, sign in to your Yahoo account.
- Go to the accounts termination page
Go to https://yahoo.mydashboard.oath.com/delete-my-account. This is the accounts termination page, and from here, you can start deleting your Yahoo account.
- Review
Review the information posted on the accounts termination page. Notice that getting rid of your Yahoo account will also terminate any additional services related to the account — Flickr (an image hosting service), Yahoo Answers, Rivals (sports recruitment), etc. Once you're done, scroll down the bottom of the page and click on “Continue delete my account.”
- Confirm the request
At this point, Yahoo will ask you to confirm your termination request by typing in your email address. Insert the information and click on “Yes, terminate this account.”
- Conclude the process
Yahoo will confirm that your account has now been scheduled for deletion. Click on “Got it” to complete the process.
At this point, you've now completed the steps to delete your Yahoo account. However, take note that it can take up to 180 days to scrub all of your information from their database.
If you change your mind, all you have to do is sign in to your account. You'll be able to reactivate it for as long as Yahoo hasn't completely purged your account from their servers. Do note, however, that you won't be able to retrieve any messages sent to your email address while it was scheduled for deletion.
Summary
So there it is — everything that you must know about how to delete a Yahoo account! As you've already realized, the process is relatively simple, although Yahoo doesn't explicitly tell you how to do it. In any case, we hope this quick guide has been helpful and that you're able to accomplish what you set out to do as far as your Yahoo account is concerned.
