Domain of the Month, November: JustDelete.Me

Have you ever tried to simply delete your account from a web service, and then found that it’s not so simple after all?

JustDelete.Me is the solution to just that.

Many websites set up an obstacle course for users to delete their accounts, sometimes even requiring an afternoon on the phone with customer service or sifting through support forums. This is no accident. Some companies use “dark patterns” to make their websites difficult to navigate. These tricks can lock users into their accounts or lead them to make unnecessary purchases, all while under the guise of a poorly designed website.

What’s the story?

JustDelete.Me provides a library of links to popular web apps and services that enable you to easily delete any of your accounts. The links will take you directly to the source where you can deactivate your account, without taking you on the typical scavenger hunt.

The extensive list of web services is even colour-coded by the level of difficulty involved in account deactivation. The green label indicates a website with an easier process to delete your account, yellow for medium, red for hard, and black for the impossible. For those more difficult websites, JustDelete.Me offers detailed information to guide you through the deactivation process (or to let you know that your account is just downright not going anywhere).

Why we love it?

It only makes sense to start our praise by pointing out the neat use of the .me domain extension. By cleverly incorporating their .me TLD, JustDelete.Me created a very catchy and memorable domain name. Impressive!

We appreciate a service that helps takes the hassle out of doing stuff – especially stuff that shouldn’t be so complicated anyway. We’ve all experienced this when dealing with companies online. At Hover, we pride ourselves in maintaining an interface that’s transparent and easy to manage, so you can get to the next thing on your to-do list. That’s why we love to see vigilante out there fighting against those who don’t make it so simple.

Now we just need a way to delete ourselves from non-web services, like gyms.