Remove Your Ex-Spouse From Shared Online Accounts

after divorce divorce Feb 21, 2023

In today’s digital age, sharing online accounts has become a common practice among couples. It’s convenient, efficient, and saves money. It eliminates the hassle of managing multiple accounts for the same service, and makes it easy to share information and content. But when a relationship ends, shared accounts pose problems.

The first issue related to shared online accounts is a potential breach of privacy. When you share an account with someone, you are giving them access to your personal data, including your emails, messages, photos, and even your financial information. When you’re in love, this doesn’t seem like a big deal. After you break up, you run the risk of your ex using this information against you. It could be used to cyber stalk you, commit identity theft, or even commit financial fraud.

Shared accounts also make it more difficult to separate after a breakup. It can be challenging to untangle your digital lives, and this is especially true if you have joint accounts for streaming services or other subscription-based services. You might find yourself locked out of these accounts or having to deal with the awkwardness of deciding who keeps an account.

What can you do to protect your data privacy after a breakup?

It’s essential to protect your privacy and security by removing your ex's access to these accounts. If you’re no longer together, you probably don’t want to share accounts in general. But it’s important mostly to protect your own privacy. You do not need your ex seeing what shows you watch, when you are active online, where you are accessing an account from (yes, some of them will show your location based on the IP address where you accessed the app or site!), or how much you’re spending.

The best solution is to remove your ex from all of your online accounts. This includes changing your passwords, removing them from joint accounts, and revoking their access to any shared services. You should also consider deleting any shared data, such as photos or documents, to ensure that your ex cannot access them.

In addition to removing your ex-partner from your online accounts, it is also important to secure your digital presence. This means reviewing your privacy settings on social media and other online platforms and making sure that your personal information is not publicly available. You should also consider enabling two-factor authentication on all your accounts to add an extra layer of security.

The first step in securing your online accounts is to make a list of all the accounts and devices you share. You might not be able to think of all of them right away, and that’s okay. Just start a list, and add to the list as you think of other accounts. Think about:

  • Email addresses (even one that you didn’t necessarily share, but you might have signed into on a shared device)
  • Online banking
  • Social media
  • Cloud storage like Dropbox, Google Drive, or Apple iCloud
  • Online shopping (not just Amazon, but other stores like Target or Walmart)
  • Streaming services like Netflix, Hulu, Prime Video, Peacock, Paramount, YouTube TV

Sharing online accounts with your spouse can be convenient, but it comes with significant risks, especially after a breakup. To protect your data privacy, remove your ex-partner from all your online accounts and secure your digital presence.

You can never be too careful when it comes to your digital services and data, even if you think your ex would never do anything underhanded.

If you’ve been the victim of infidelity, check out our free resource “Steps to Take After Catching a Cheater.”

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