Bitly will delete your account if you don’t use it for three years

• Posted 6 February 2025

A fortnight after Google told me they were about to delete an old account, it’s time for Bitly to do something similar. I got an email today:

There are 30 days left until your Bitly account will be deleted

We’re looking out for you and your privacy. Since you haven’t logged into your account in the last 3 years, we will be deleting your account and personal information attached to it, such as your name and email address.

Here’s the relevant part of Bitly’s privacy policy (retrieved 6 February 2025):

Bitly collects personal data about you […] The personal data is erased from or anonymized in our systems upon request of the data subject or the customer they represent, or if the data is detected as irrelevant in our automated or manual system maintenance, or after 3 years following the last contact with the data subject, whichever occurs first.

The email also links to an FAQ page, which links to another help page explaining what happens to shortened links after you delete your account:

• Any links using bit.ly will continue to work
• Any links with custom or complimentary domains will gradually break, as either the domain name or SSL certificate won’t be renewed

I’m going to let the account get automatically deleted because I’m not using it any more; I’m writing a TIL so I remember this policy choice.