Advice Request Should I delete my old received/sent emails?

[Ink]

From a security and privacy perspective, would it be a good idea to delete Emails I have Received over a year ago, including Sent and Drafts?

What are your thoughts on this matter?

Edit: Change to multiple votes, 2 maximum.

 

[maximus]

I delete only non-important emails and spam.

 

[kev216]

Like @maximus I also delete the non-important ones (and those that I know I don't need them anymore) after some time. If I delete them all, I am going to regret it if I need one again

 

[DracusNarcrym]

I only delete non-important e-mails and spam e-mails (spam is automatically filtered and deleted as I use Google Mail, I don't delete it manually).
An example of non-important e-mails: Offers or discount notifications from Steam or other online stores, which are no longer valid.
There is obviously no need for examples of spam e-mails, they are self-explanatory.

 

[Online_Sword]

For me, it varies from mailbox to mailbox:

1. The mailbox given by the institute and used for sending/receiving official mails: nearly delete nothing except some with huge attachments. PST files are frequently and manually backed up.

2. The mailbox bound to the mobile phone: I have created a set of rules such that only important mails will not be dropped by the server automatically. This is essential since many of my other mailboxes will forward emails to this mailbox. My phone will automatically delete the mails received 7 days before.

3. The other mailboxes: I visit these mailboxes with the browsers, and never download the emails in those mailboxes, except some receipts. So the storage of those mails is not a problem, since nowadays the capacities of the mailboxes are nearly infinite. (The capacity of my first mailbox was just 20MB at that time.) In such case, I do not want to clean the mailboxes since I am a little lazy.

 

[kev216]

I actually don't have that much work to do this job. I just go through the list and see which are too old, or not important anymore. All the spam is sent to my second 'junk' mail adress, so I never have to worry about spam in my mailbox

 

[Kate_L]

I only delete SPAM

 

[Exterminator]

Non important and spam emails.After a while most important emails become non important

 

[Quassar]

Spam and not important e-mails, important e-mails like a payments i resend to 2nd email

 

[illumination]

Like my system, i keep it clean always... If it is important enough to save, i copy it to a external device for storage, otherwise it hits the circular file system

 

[CMLew]

Usually what I would do is I create filters for email.
Then every month I just go to filter scroll through see if anything interesting/ important and then delete.
Any new email i will usually read in priority and manually delete if needed.

Important email I usually multiple back-up. I forward the email to another email account. At the same time, I save it and then print it out (depends how important it is).
Once back-up done, I delete them.
Usually done once every 3 months.

Typically, my mailbox should not exceed 200-300 emails per month granted no other people spamming me.

 

[Quassar]

Just use Alias mails and you can got something king like sandbox on system and you can easy got 99% clean mail

 

[CMLew]

Just use Alias mails and you can got something king like sandbox on system and you can easy got 99% clean mail

What's Alias mails? Curious...

 

[Viking]

I delete non important emails/spam/junk/sent emails/drafts, and everything I think is useless to me.

 

[Cats-4_Owners-2]

What's Alias mails? Curious...

@CMLew, I believe what Quillathe referred to as 'Alias mails' is the use of temporary (or disposable) emails which do not reveal your actual email address. From a security standpoint, this is a plus for keeping one's real email private. One example offered through "Blur" is an option to substitute one's real address (for privacy) with a "Masked" substitute email. I've memorized one I've used that ends in @opayq.com which forwards corresponding email to my @gmail.com account.

From Blur:
"All Masked information is real, meaning it works. It just cannot be tracked back to you or abused.

• If you give a site a masked email and they email you, you'll receive that email forwarded privately to your real email address you've set up with Blur."

Source: Blur: Keep your web activity and personal info private

As many fellow email users here, I attempt to delete old & useless email.
Sentimentality, on the other hand, has allowed my (5) separate email addresses, at times, to become cluttered as do some people's garages which are eventually no longer used to park their cars anymore! My main problem with "Masked" (alias) email is how I've grown attached to the temporary email I've memorized instead of disposing it! Like passwords, emails can be altered or changed. In my opinion, it's better not to become attached with emails that are essentially old mail, or any disposable email addresses for that matter.
I suggest separating that which you value apart from what you do not, and don't be too concerned about keeping worthless emails such as old notices that have no further use.
..but, now, all of my old PMs here on MT are another matter altogether!

 

[Tabeer]

I think You should delete

• Non-important emails
• Spam emails only

 

[jamescv7]

If no vital information contain on the sent emails then better delete at all to practice the habit, even though many email-services provide unlimited storage capacity, hence its too much when they are just occupy without anything use.

 

[Deleted member 178]

i delete everything that is older than 3 months, if important emails have to be kept; i copy the content, encrypt them and save them on my PC.

 

[Tabeer]

I delete non important emails/spam/junk/sent emails/drafts, and everything I think is useless to me.

Delete unnecessary sent mails is not an issue but important ones maybe you need some day.

 

[Tabeer]

I only delete SPAM

I think you should also delete your unwanted mails because it occupy most of the space of your inbox.