Decreasing Electronic Footprint

Remember when Heartbleed was a big thing. Back in 2014 we thought that was bad, but it is nothing compared to these days.

After the past few weeks of fun and excitement on the Web, I decided to decrease my Electronic Footprint.  The Heartbleed Bug meant that we must change all of our passwords to get back to a less vulnerable stance.

One of the first steps I have taken is to minimize financial issues. I had a small account with Mint.com, which was mainly just to try things out, that I have deleted.  The account was not being used. All it did was tell me once a month that one of my credit cards had a balance.

The reasons for cancelling this part of my electronic footprint:

• The account was not being used. It could act as a gateway for “bad folk” to break into my financial life.
• Mint while an interesting service, can cause a great deal of consternation with your financial providers as well, if your account is cracked and used for bad things. I am not sure if your bank could do anything, but I don’t think you want to expose yourself to any possible jeopardy from sharing your banking information.
• It is one less password and user id to remember or worry about.

I actually have a very long list of user ids and passwords. I will now be going through to decide to either:

1. Change the password to something new
2. Delete the account because I can’t justify having this “possible security hole” still existing

Oh, and understand that many accounts, if you “DELETE” them, don’t go away (e.g. Facebook), so remember to read carefully what happens if you try to DELETE an account.