How many internet accounts do I have?

Last year I sat down and started listing all the various accounts I have out on the internet. I started off by guessing about a hundred.  By the time I got to two hundred I realised just how much information I was happily giving away to companies on the internet. I had to take back control of this and also start being more methodical about what information I provide when creating an account.

I decided to use some mind mapping software called SimpleMind on my iPAD and created a number of account categories.  This really helped.  I also went through my email inbox to check for email, and reviewed the history in my browser, sorting it by title so I could flick through it quickly.

Now that I had the list I needed to decide what to do about it.  The first thing I did was add another level of metadata.  I marked each account to highlight whether it was just a mailing list (at some point or other I had provided someone with an email),  or had I actually created an account.  If it was a mailing list,  I then tried to remember if I had provided the email (did I register at some point) to the company or had they gotten my information by other means. I then systematically went through and started unsubscribing to anything that I was not interested in.

Next, I looked at all the accounts where I had been asked to create an account with a password.  I went through them all and worked out which ones were useful and which ones I needed to delete.  This still left me with nearly 100 accounts/passwords which still needed to be managed. I am sure that I have missed many accounts, but at least now that I have a list I can add them to it each time they crop up in an email or I actually go and log onto the site. Taking control takes time, but once it is done it is far easier.