June 25th, 2025
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Your information has been permanently deleted, for small values of permanently

As part of a periodic purge of unused online accounts, I deleted my account from a company ten months ago. Let’s call that company Contoso. I received a confirmation that said, “Your personal information and items associated with your account have now been deleted. This action is permanent and cannot be reversed.”

Yesterday, I got an email from Contoso informing me that they have updated their Privacy Policy.

So I guess their “confirmation” of “permanent” and “irreversible” deletion of my personal information was premature, seeing as they still have my email address.

Author

Raymond has been involved in the evolution of Windows for more than 30 years. In 2003, he began a Web site known as The Old New Thing which has grown in popularity far beyond his wildest imagination, a development which still gives him the heebie-jeebies. The Web site spawned a book, coincidentally also titled The Old New Thing (Addison Wesley 2007). He occasionally appears on the Windows Dev Docs Twitter account to tell stories which convey no useful information.

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