Lately, I have been cleaning up clutters, of online profiles, that is. And today’s turn is the Hotmail and Skype accounts. I had a Hotmail account very very early on (in 1996), when it was possible to register an account with a three-letter alias. Then Hotmail became a Microsoft domain.
In 2004, I registered another account, after my original three-letter account was suddenly inaccessible, for no obvious reason.
A year later, a customer in Europe insisted on communicating via Skype, so I had a Skype account. Skype was strictly business, I had less then 10 buddies, only those who insisted on it.
Starting from 2012, I basically stopped using the Hotmail account, because Hotmail has become so festered by spams. I logged in once or twice a year, just to check if there was anything I missed.
Fast forward, and Skype also became a Microsoft brand, and Hotmail and Skype are bonded together. Then, Microsoft insisted on having a backup account, for security reason. You either had to hand in your phone number, or submit another email address as backup. I always refused to give my phone number, so an email address then. Surely everyone has amassed a dozen of email addresses on different email platforms by now.
But frankly, I don’t understand what kind of idiot who came up with this idea that an email service provider must insist on a user having another email account, from another email service provider, so that they can send you a verification code in the name of security. Unfortunately, this seems to be the trend now. Almost every provider seems to be adamant about it.
Let’s say, you go to a phone service provider to get a phone and a number. And the phone company asks you to provide a phone number from another service provider, so that they can send a code to verify who you are. If I already had a phone from a competing provider already, why would I want to get a phone from you? Needless to say, I find this idea extremely strange.
For years, these email service providers did not have any way to rescind your account. When you are not happy with the service, you just stop using it, and leave it as a zombie account. Now that the function is available, it’s time to clean up the mess.
Even though Microsoft tried the make the process a little convoluted, I am still happy to have the account close. Some day, I will need to give the same fate to Gmail, which is used mostly for receiving verification code.