Digital privacy after CTB?

[timorousTruant]

Hello, I'm new here, nice to meet you all.

I was wondering what precautions I should take to protect my privacy before I CTB, since I would prefer that my family doesn't snoop around all my stuff after I'm gone.

I plan to:
* Delete all accounts, email addresses, etc I want gone at least 30 days prior to CTB.
* Wipe/reset my devices, including USBs, etc.
* Delete/unsend whatever messages I can.

Is this enough? How difficult would it be to recover my data? I (18 M) still live at home, so if I leave anything physical behind, my family could try to. The reason I ask is because writing is a hobby of mine, and I have quite a few horrendously edgy and embarrassing stories both on my laptop's hard drive, and on an online account where I post them (my family doesn't know about the account). It's all very personal and vent-y, so I find it more comfortable only letting internet strangers see my terrible writing, lol. My family knows I write, but I've never shared anything with them, so I'm pretty sure they'd try to read my stuff after I die, which I am not AT ALL comfortable with.

So, are my precautions enough? Should I just... throw my devices in the bathtub and then break them with a hammer? What would you suggest?

 

[jodes2]

Hello, I'm new here, nice to meet you all.

I was wondering what precautions I should take to protect my privacy before I CTB, since I would prefer that my family doesn't snoop around all my stuff after I'm gone.

I plan to:
* Delete all accounts, email addresses, etc I want gone at least 30 days prior to CTB.
* Wipe/reset my devices, including USBs, etc.
* Delete/unsend whatever messages I can.

Is this enough? How difficult would it be to recover my data? I (18 M) still live at home, so if I leave anything physical behind, my family could try to. The reason I ask is because writing is a hobby of mine, and I have quite a few horrendously edgy and embarrassing stories both on my laptop's hard drive, and on an online account where I post them (my family doesn't know about the account). It's all very personal and vent-y, so I find it more comfortable only letting internet strangers see my terrible writing, lol. My family knows I write, but I've never shared anything with them, so I'm pretty sure they'd try to read my stuff after I die, which I am not AT ALL comfortable with.

So, are my precautions enough? Should I just... throw my devices in the bathtub and then break them with a hammer? What would you suggest?

I doubt they'd go to extraordinary lengths to recover data?! Just delete stuff and that should be fine I'd have thought it's not simple recovering lost data, need to be quite technical and determined

 

[coyotestark]

What do you care? If you're successful it won't matter. I, personally, wouldn't get too worked up over it.

 

[Wannagonow]

I can certainly appreciate your concern regarding privacy once you're gone. Especially if you think you may be leaving something behind you feel may be hurtful to your family. My personal thinking is that I will be gone and it simply won't matter to me. I also don't think going thru the history on my phone will be something they will be focusing on. I hope you won't overthink this to the point that it causes you too much stress.

 

[timorousTruant]

What do you care? If you're successful it won't matter. I, personally, wouldn't get too worked up over it.

Lol I suppose that's true!

I can certainly appreciate your concern regarding privacy once you're gone. Especially if you think you may be leaving something behind you feel may be hurtful to your family. My personal thinking is that I will be gone and it simply won't matter to me. I also don't think going thru the history on my phone will be something they will be focusing on. I hope you won't overthink this to the point that it causes you too much stress.

You're right. I have quite severe anxiety so I'm probably overthinking it. I suppose if I'm successful I can't care too much about what comes next. Thanks for your kind reply :)