Guide
Too many online accounts? How to get them under control
The average person has well over a hundred online accounts and could name maybe twenty. Each forgotten one is a password that may be reused, a saved card, a home address in a database you no longer think about. If that sounds like you, you do not need more discipline, you need a system. This one takes an afternoon to set up and an hour a year to maintain.
1. Make the full list
You cannot manage what you cannot see. Your inbox is the best starting point, because nearly every sign-up sent you an email. Our guide to finding all accounts linked to your email lists the searches that work, and our guide to finding forgotten accounts covers the places your inbox misses.
2. Sort them into four groups
- Essential: email, bank, government, health, work. These get the strongest protection.
- Used regularly: shops, streaming, social media you still use.
- Paid but unused: cancel first, then delete. See how to cancel forgotten subscriptions.
- Dead weight: everything you have not used in two years. Delete it.
3. Delete the dead weight
This is the step that shrinks the problem for good. Aim to delete at least a third of the list. Every account you close is one less thing that can leak. Our guide on deleting old online accounts shows how, including what to do when there is no delete button.
4. Protect what is left
- Use a password manager. The one built into your browser is fine. One unique password per account removes the biggest risk.
- Turn on two-factor authentication on your essential accounts, starting with your email, since it can reset every other password.
- Remove saved cards from shops you rarely use.
5. Slow down new sign-ups
- Check out as a guest when a shop allows it.
- Sign up with an alias such as yourname+shop@gmail.com, so you can filter that mail and see who leaks your address.
- Think twice before "Sign in with Google" on a site you will use once, and review those connections from time to time.
6. Review once a year
Put a reminder in your calendar. Re-run the inbox searches for the past twelve months, add the new accounts to your list and delete the ones you stopped using. With the system in place, it takes about an hour.
Your inbox already knows every account you have. HealthInbox reads only your Gmail headers to list them all, flags the forgotten ones and tells you what to do with each, privately and on your device.
See how HealthInbox finds them