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@ian@hachyderm.ioPSA: delete your old Photobucket account now! Don’t put it off.
You know those emails you’ve been getting for a year from Photobucket threatening to delete your old account and you were like lol who cares and ignored them?
Turns out they didn’t delete them anyway, they repurposed the business as a broker of biometric data to AI companies and they’re using your old pictures for that. You have to actually go in and delete your account to opt out, and you only have until Monday, July 22 to do it.
@ian jebus
So, I worked there for a few years and they’ve now sent me like thousands of emails about all my old test accounts that never expired lol.
@onyxraven I hate this for you
@ian it makes me sad what happened to that company. Lots of wierd decisions, I got out at a real opportune time.
@ian Sounds very illegal in relation to EU residents. As in processing of special categories of personal data, article 9 of the GDPR prohibited with big, very large fines attached.
@CubeThoughts @ian I think that's why the "as far as your region allows it" paragraph is there 
But do they know where I reside? I don't remember if I put this in
@ian they wont let me reset my password lmao 
@alexandria @ian I'm being asked to buy something in order to unlock my account lol
@yelof @alexandria @ian On the account deletion page, there was an option to receive an email with a link to download all your content in a zip file without needing to pay to unlock the account... of course they don't tell you that upfront 
@bcbrookman @alexandria @ian I never saw that! One thing I did notice is that when using Firefox, it kept on saying I wasn't logged in, even though I had just logged in. Went over to Chrome and it finally recognized my login/ID (but then claimed I was logged out on the next page!). Was quite a journey, and I'm like 50% sure I just deleted my account
@yelof I wasn't able to log in either, but was using FF. Will try Chrome, thanks!
@bcbrookman @yelof @alexandria @ian
email them asking that you request that all your data be deleted immediately and that they may expect a GDPR action if they do not delete.
@alexandria the “send me a passwordless link to log in” option did work for me
@ian ah fuck, the email I used is long gone
Just go to the .com and enter the email address where you had your account
@ian@hachyderm.io wait didn't they die? or was that just tinypic
@ian Thanks for the PSA. They make it easy to delete the account if you don't agree to the new terms.
@TeamLinux01 @ian there's at least that. It kept telling me I couldn't delete my account without logging in, which I couldn't do without agreeing to the new policies, but clicking "confirm to delete your account" didn't throw up any error messages.
Got a confirmation saying my account is scheduled for deletion, but it may take up to 30 days to actually be deleted.
@TeamLinux01 @ian Sort of easy. I had to confirm four times, each with a different sales pitch for their paid services.
@TeamLinux01 @ian I can't get anywhere without logging in, and can't log in or get a login link without agreeing to new terms. Am I missing something?
@ian Every attempt I have made to delete my account for the last year or whatever has failed.
, 
; Soni L. @ian we tried to delete
it didn't work
apparently they didn't have any data from us tho? slightly confused, no idea why we ever signed up in the first place
@ian they make you login to delete but you can’t login without paying them! F*ck ‘em. Delete. Then it’s: ok scheduled for deletion might take 30 days. #PissArtists
@ian Heh I've just been treating their e-mails as spam, constantly promising that they'll delete my account soon if I don't act but then never going through with it. Thanks for the heads up.
@mort Turns out this takes effect tomorrow!
Click "I do not agree", then click through account deletion. Only after confirming deletion do they give you a link to download all your content.
@ian how cool, 1 whole day !! how generous of them
@ian that's one way of making sure people "care" about your shitty service i suppose
𐑒𐑵𐑐𐑛𐑪𐑑 @ian thank you for the heads up. I forgot I had an account at all so I downloaded the data and it turns out I only had 1 image there and it was a meme making fun of the Pirate Bay trials
@ian lol interesting and thanks for the heads up. fig-ed have them backed elsewhere, so why? bother, as you say. but as u state, they are using them for bio-data, ( is it legal ? for them to do that??) some now state they own the rights when you put them there, in other words, they are theirs, if stated in the TOS, so will delete the account and opt-out of that-
Good catch! 
@ian BTW always read the 'fine print' ,( TOS that you agree to ..) some boards also say that when you upload them, they then belong to the board! (admin) even if the account is actively in use, so make sure you know what you are giving them!
@ian I
The email I got says this at the bottom:
“If you do not agree with the updated Terms of Use, the updated Privacy Policy, and/or the new Biometric Information Privacy Policy, you can opt-out within forty-five (45) days of July 22nd by deleting your account.”
Sure sounds like we have until 6 weeks after Monday, but I don’t trust ‘em or plan to wait.
@ian I just went through the process & it was surprisingly easy & quick. Still annoyed I had to do it but am glad to have all my images back in my possession (& nicely organized!) & in their original, unvandalized-by-ugly-watermarks condition.
For anyone interested, this was the process I went thru after requesting & getting (by email) my temp login:
I did that end of last year. My pictures had been deleted off it way before though. Hopefully that's enough (for that platform).
@ian I deleted all my photos last year when Photobucket started sending all those annoying emails. I tried to login to confirm that I had nothing there, but they require you to accept their new 7/22 terms in order to login.
I sent a support ticket demanding that I be able to view my account before I deleted it. They said that my account appears to be empty and they were sorry that they could not recover any images.
I went ahead with the deletion process and clicked to have them send me all my content, assuming it would be nothing.
Guess what?!? All the photos that I had deleted were still there!
Thanks for this! I ceased ignoring them and deleted my account.
@ian oh for _fuck_ _SAKE_
Thank you for calling it out.
One of those times when I'm grateful for my disinclination to jump on every new platform that comes along....
@ian I guess that’s one way to extract a few bucks out of those of us who now have to pay for access just to delete everything. 
@ian thank you.
@ian Thanks for that. Done!
@ian This calls for a two-pronged attack. The first line of attack would be an attempt to invoke Europe's data privacy laws and hammer them with fines. This may or may not work.
Second line of attack is to target their servers for file deleting malware AND to target those who buy biometric data from them for attack. A few companies finding that the biometric data they bought from Photobucket came with a side order of ransomware could well tank this whole outfit.
@ian oh man. considering what i used photobucket for, i almost want them to take the photos.
...old memes and photoshops i was making in like 2007 LMFAO
@ian jeez better get my friends on Element and quit sending my nudes through Discord :S
@ian
Thanks! My Photobucket account from 20 years ago was still there, and now it's deleted.
@ian Gosh, thanks for the reminder. I was planning to do this next week and hadn't realised the deadline was so close.
@ian
Oh man, generative AI is going to get so good at c.2006 web forum signatures.
They wouldn't let me log in or change my password. Either I already deleted it a while back, they deleted it, or they saw this and the like going around and had a "service error."
Why Not Zoidberg? 
@ian Boosting this for people who care. Me personally only used Photobucket to store screenshots for games I wanted to publish on reddit.
@ian aw man. AI always sucks in generative field
@ian People should not be so sure they never had an account. I forgot I had one.
To double-check, they should check their browsers' saved passwords, where I found I had an account from 2011.
Even if they don't find a saved password, they should try signing in with Google. I did this and was able to delete the account after they begged me several times to reconsider.
@ian Thanks for that!
Had to click past like 5 "No, really, I want to delete it this time" limited-time offers. I didn't even flinch, didn't read a single one.
@ian
I look forward to that class action suit.
@ItsTrainingCatsAndDogs
@ian
They’re trying to charge me £5 to reset acc.
@ian It kept asking me to accept the new T&Cs before I could login o delete my account! Luckily I was persistent enough to keep saying no, delete my account and eventually the login failed so I guess they did. Whether they actually deleted my images and/or details is another matter; I wouldn't bank on it. Thanks for the heads up!
@ian Thanks. About a year ago I downloaded the backup from photobucket, but I didn't remember if I had deleted my account. I've now deleted it, or rather scheduled it for deletion. I got a confirmation email.