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Removing accounts after some time of inactivity and Recycling usernames are bad ideas.

Email is not only a communication tool, but probably more importantly an internet identity. People use their email to open accounts on websites. If an email address is deleted and reused by another user, then all personal data bonded with that email address is lost and at risk.
As I know gmail doesn't recycle email addresses. That's a considerate idea.

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  • the dude commented  ·   ·  Report

    Just another voice here saying that deletion or suspension of account due to inactivity is a bad idea, especially for the following reason:

    Protonmail becomes useful once there is widespread adoption. What good is encryption on my end if the other party receives and stores copies of those emails unencrypted? For this service to be useful, both sides must use it. Though I have been a huge proponent of Protonmail by sending it to all my friends and family, the reality is that it will be some time (if ever) that this service reaches mass adoption. So unfortunately, my usage of the service will more or less track that adoption rate (as it is proportional to the security of the service).

    Please don't delete inactive accounts. And if you must, please give folks A LOT of warning beforehand; I'd even say 12 months heads up at the very least.

    Lastly, thank you for making this wonderful service. The world needs it (now we just have to help them realize it).

  • Chuck commented  ·   ·  Report

    The ideal policy would be suspension at 6 months, deletion at 12 months.

  • polarfuchs commented  ·   ·  Report

    Its a bad idea. Indeed, I just subscribe to ProtonMail, and my activity is very low at this time. I'm waiting for the new feature "aliases". Then my activity will grow up. During this lap of time I'm afraid to have my account deleted (even my activity is low, I have some datas on my account).

  • glick commented  ·   ·  Report

    "Privacy Policy - Data Retention
    Data may be retained for up to 7 days in our backups. Accounts that are inactive for over 3 months may be subject to automatic deletion at our discretion."

    This is much too short. Someone facing a bad accident would loose its data.
    1 year should be a minimum please.

  • Jimmy commented  ·   ·  Report

    I asked Protonmail support about this very issue and they replied that at this time there is no inactive account removal, this may change in the future. If they do change their policy they should let us know so there's no surprises.

  • Mortal Damm commented  ·   ·  Report

    I agree, the accounts should be removed after 1 year of inactivity.

  • Anonymous commented  ·   ·  Report

    If it's not possible to have an account which is never deleted due to inactivity, then I'd prefer it if the period of inactivity was 12 months...or 1 year, 1 month, 1 day.

    Of course, having an account which is never deleted by ProtonMail wouldn't be desirable unless the account holder had the right to delete their account themselves.

  • Diego Otelo commented  ·   ·  Report

    The ProtonMail accounts are deleted after three months of inactivity

    In my opinion that's a bad idea

    Compromises security because you can not always be active

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