How to delete a Quora account: A step-by-step guide
4 min read
Permanently deleting your Quora account takes minimal effort but is an action worth considering to help reduce your digital imprint by eliminating an unused account. Read on to find out how to delete or deactivate your Quora account, what you should think about before doing so, and how to manage your social media accounts to stay safe online.
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Things to consider before deleting your Quora account
If you don’t use your Quora account anymore, it might be a good idea to erase the traces of your personal information there by deleting it. The less information you have about you on the web, the fewer the chances of becoming a victim of a data breach or other cyberattacks.
Once you’ve decided to delete your Quora account, bear in mind that the inconvenience created by the deletion process will depend on how long and how actively you’ve been using Quora. With your personal information, all the content you’ve created or saved on the platform will also be erased. One simple way to avoid losing valuable information stored on Quora is to review and back up all the important data in a safe space.
Quora archives all your content and personal data and can send it to your account’s primary email address upon your request. To submit your request, write to privacy@quora.com or visit quora.com/contact and select “I want a copy of my data.” You can expect to receive your archive within 72 hours after Quora’s team confirms they received your request.
You should also keep in mind that upon account deletion, you will lose access to your connections and contributors. So make sure to transfer all the important contacts to social media platforms you actively use.
How to permanently delete your Quora account
If you decided to delete your Quora account permanently, here are the steps you should follow:
1. Go to https://www.quora.com and log in to your account.
Note. If you use your Google or Facebook accounts to log in, you will need to create a Quora password for the deletion process. To do that, click the “Change password” link at the top of the page and choose “Create an account password.”
2. Click on your profile icon in the screen’s top right corner and go to your account “Settings” that appear in the drop-down menu.
3. Click on “Privacy” from the settings menu on the left side of the screen. You will see two options at the bottom of the screen — “Deactivate account” or “Delete account.” Click the “Delete account” option.
4. A pop up window will appear asking you to enter your password.
5. Click on “Delete.”
Once you delete your Quora account, the platform gives you a 14-day grace period to change your mind. If you re-login to your account within 14 days of initiating the account deletion, your account will be reactivated. However, remember that Quora maintains the right to preserve any information needed to fulfill legal obligations.
Deleting vs. deactivating a Quora account
Quora provides users who no longer wish to use the platform with two options: permanently deleting their account or deactivating it. Let’s take a look at the difference between these options.
Deactivating a Quora account lets you maintain your content and its visibility on the platform while choosing to be an inactive participant. You will also stop receiving notifications and emails from Quora. If at some point you’d like to reactivate your Quora account, you’d only need to log back into it, and you could use it as you did before. The ability to return to the platform makes deactivation a good choice if you’re unsure whether you’d like to stop using Quora permanently.
If you want to remove all the data associated with you from the platform, you should choose permanent deletion for your Quora account. Once your account is deleted, it cannot be restored, and all your content, including your profile, Quora answers, comments, posts, votes, endorsements, and messages, will be permanently erased.
You should be aware, though, that the questions you’ve asked will still be available for users to see (though they won’t be tied to your account). The same applies to your content shared by other users outside Quora. However, users who republish content are obliged to delete it upon request. Furthermore, once your account is deleted, you will no longer receive notifications from Quora.
It’s always a good idea to regularly manage your social media accounts and get rid of those you don’t use. For instance, after Quora’s data breach incident in 2018, many users questioned if Quora was a safe platform to use. However, every social media platform is susceptible to attempts to steal user data. That’s why it’s important to reduce your online presence only to the platforms you actively use and be aware of possible privacy issues originating in social media.
Once you’ve managed your social media accounts, follow these steps to make them more secure:
- Use a strong password. The password is considered strong when it includes uppercase and lowercase letters and special characters. All of your accounts should also have unique passwords, but if this seems too overwhelming, consider using trustworthy password management tools, such as NordPass.
- Use two-factor authentication (2FA). 2FA ads and an extra layer of security by asking you to verify your login on the device you chose, usually your mobile phone, whenever you want to access your account.
- Adjust privacy settings. Regularly check the privacy settings on your social media accounts to be aware of the possible policy changes and renew them accordingly.
