Using a KeePassDX for a password manager the history of an entry shows that I created a Pandora password entry in December of 2020. I have had the account since the mid to early 2000’s…This account was tied to a Gmail account which I am slowly deleting accounts associated. I mention these time stamps because for me this takes time and if you are taking a long time well your not the only one.
How I go about changing and deleting these accounts is a process.
Using a Google phone, I call this any phone still connected to Google. In this case it is a Samsung S7 and do you forget how small and light these phones were. This phone is locked where I can not install a custom ROM such as LineageOS. The app which I use to block apps access to the internet is NetGuard. Occasionally I connect to a public Wi-Fi and check my Gmail to evaluate the mail. Subscriptions that need to be deleted and any mail that leads me to a forgotten account.
Today I connected the Google phone via Wi-Fi to my “Daily Driver” cell phones hot spot. I have mentioned this phones specs, a Pixel 6 Pro running CalyxOS Android 13, utilizing ProtonVPN and Orbot on a contract Verizon service. The Google phone is connected to a Desktop running scrcpy, for a desktop experience. With NetGuard locking the phone down I used Brave Browser to access Pandora and logged in using the password that is many years old. Sure enough the password was good. Now I know it has been almost five years since I actually played music on this account, just from recollection. My Facebook account was deactivated by Facebook, almost 4 years ago maybe… Sure enough at one time my Pandora Account Profile had my Facebook profile name in the Profile. The Profile was set to private BTW. I was curious what would happen if I tried to connect to the Facebook account. The website refreshed and my Profile Initial changed from the Facebook name to the first letter of the email address. Now I had an option to connect to Facebook instead of the old profile. Wondering now as I edit this should I create a new Facebook account every time I find a linked account.
I proceeded to edit all profile information. Changed the Birth Year, Zip Code password and email address. Logged out and Logged back in. This is the one instance where I use Brave Password manager. It just helps if I make a careless mistake or if I need to sign out and in multiple times for verification. With Auto Save On I accept the save new saved password make my changes and then use the saved password to log on. This of course fails. Then using the new credentials I log back in to delete the account. Never did I have to verify the change of email address or verify anything except the old password when changing the password. Not a bad experience.
I feel I might have skipped saying that I used IronVest for the masked email which I changed the email address to. I received two forwarded emails to my ProtonMail account. One email saying the email addressed was changed and one email saying the account was deleted. I will use this new masked email for about 7 account changes before deleting the masked email address. Before I delete the masked email I go into keepass and delete the affected password entry.
I want to share this experience for several reasons one is your consideration am I being safe and private. I would prefer to connect the Google phone to a public Wi-Fi but my access to public Wi-Fi is infrequent. As well NetGuard is treated like a VPN, but we all should no it is not. Using a VPN on a public Wi-Fi makes sense but not using NetGuard, Google phones home.