Software & Apps

There have been all sorts of changes afoot at Yahoo! in recent months. The latest change, set to take effect July 15, is to release Yahoo! accounts that have not been accessed in a year.

Obviously, this is very likely to cause a variety of problems for those folks who are not aware that this change is happening. There could be lost content, broken links to apps and online accounts, but there are ways in which the problem could potentially be more serious. Those accounts that were once in active use but have since been abandoned may end up causing some security problems for former owners.

• Accounts connected with Yahoo! mail for notification
  If you use your Yahoo! mail account for password reset notification, you may not be notified if someone tries to breach that account, if the email is now going to someone else or simply bouncing. Likewise, if you forget your password, that email with a link to get back into your account is going to be sent to someone else. This could potentially mean someone could now take control of your account.
• Important content stored in your Yahoo! account
  If you have login data, information about other online accounts or other useful tidbits of information, these are going to go into the digital dustbin if you don’t log in soon. Which could mean you’re going to need that password reset email to go to a valid account.
• Accounts created in your name or your business’ name
  If you have created accounts to reserve your name so that it couldn’t be used to impersonate you, it could soon be available to fraudsters again.

The way to solve any potential problems is pretty doggone simple: Log into your old Yahoo! account.

No more worries, no more hassles, no potential security woes.

If you do want to release your old Yahoo! account back into the ether, you have a potentially time-consuming task on your hand. You will need to make sure anything attached to that account gets moved to another one that you intend to regularly log into. Of course, the process of doing that may mean you end up having to log into your Yahoo! account, thus ensuring your account doesn’t get orphaned after all. But if they end up revisiting this process in the future, or allowing people to opt-in to redistributing your account, you’ll be ready for next time.