Offer a way for people to cancel their Ubuntu SSO account

[Matt Griffin]

login.ubuntu.com should have a way to cancel your account if you want to leave Ubuntu SSO.
You should be able to create a new (fresh) account with the same email address at a later date... just in case you want to return to the service... we get a few Ubuntu One boomerang subscribers. Thanks!

[Stuart Metcalfe (stuartmetcalfe)]

This is very similar to what bug #559518 is becoming, but I like your real-world use case so I'm going to add it as a separate bug and we can decide whether we still need to do anything with the other bug when we review it.

[Selene ToyKeeper (toykeeper)]

I have a ticket related to this. In IS RT #45139, a user wants to delete two of his three SSO accounts. I don't know his LP IDs, if he has any, just his SSO email addresses.

[Marek Paśnikowski (marekpasnikowski)]

My case is that I spawned multiple accounts during a long period of time. Recently I decided to clean my own mess. After all, I am supposed to have one account, right? At first, I wanted to add all of my mail adressess to my 'main' account, but couldn't, because they were used in the other accounts - I had hoped that a merge of the accounts was possible.

[Selene ToyKeeper (toykeeper)]

Since 2012-01-01, I've had at least 79 support tickets where a user wanted to delete their SSO account. This is roughly 25% of the tickets I get.

In the majority of these cases, they want to completely remove all their data instead of just deactivating or suspending the account.

These often happen when a user tries Ubuntu One, decides they'd rather use something else, and then file a ticket to have their account closed. However, other situations are common too, like they simply feel that they are done with us and want to tidy up when they leave.

[Selene ToyKeeper (toykeeper)]

Here is what the users see, currently:

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/SSO/FAQs/Delete_SSO_Account
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/SSO/FAQs/Delete_LP_Account
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/SSO/FAQs/Delete_All_Accounts
https://one.ubuntu.com/help/faq/how-do-i-downgrade-or-cancel-my-ubuntu-one-account/
http://askubuntu.com/questions/71079/how-do-i-remove-my-ubuntu-one-account

[Selene ToyKeeper (toykeeper)]

During the cancellation process, the user should be presented with a firm warning that they will lose access to a number of other sites, with a complete list of all sites they have logged into via login.ubuntu.com.

The SSO front page shows the last 10 sites accessed, but not the full list.

The cancellation process should also strongly encourage the user to close their other accounts first, then return to SSO after they've done so. We can make this easier by providing them with links to info about some of those accounts, such as Ubuntu One and Launchpad.

[Selene ToyKeeper (toykeeper)]

In the past 2 months, I've received 189 tickets about this, which accounts for about 80% of all incoming SSO tickets. So, I'm hoping to start adding a self-service function to SSO soon.

[Leo Arias (elopio)]

All the time we have spent attending support requests to delete SSO accounts could be better spend implementing the feature.
I've been in support 3 weeks, and I've answered to at least 50 requests.

+1 for this.

[Daniel Manrique (roadmr)]

The original request:

"login.ubuntu.com should have a way to cancel your account if you want to leave Ubuntu SSO."

There is now: log into login.ubuntu.com and the Personal details page has a "permanently delete account" link at the bottom. It gives you a dire warning of the consequences. Using it keeps the account record and the openid identifier, but marks them as inactive/deleted. The e-mail addresses associated with the account are removed so they can be reused in a new account.

"You should be able to create a new (fresh) account with the same email address at a later date... just in case you want to return to the service... we get a few Ubuntu One boomerang subscribers. Thanks!"

Per the above, this also works: a new account can be created with a previously-used email address.

From comment #6:

"During the cancellation process, the user should be presented with a firm warning that they will lose access to a number of other sites, with a complete list of all sites they have logged into via login.ubuntu.com."

The current warning:

Please be aware that deleting your Ubuntu One account means you'll lose access to all your accounts tied to your Ubuntu One login. This means you won't be able to change their status or cancel any services associated.

Other services:
Landscape, Ubuntu wiki sites, Ubuntu Forum and AskUbuntu accounts won't be deleted, but you will lose access to those too. You should contact each team if you want to make sure each of those are eliminated too.

For more information check out: How can I delete my account.

Please take a moment to read through this page and make sure you understand the consequences of deleting your account before you confirm this action.

So I think that part is covered.

"The SSO front page shows the last 10 sites accessed, but not the full list."

The deletion page shows all sites associated with the account (wow, I first authenticated to one.ubuntu.com in November 2009!).

"The cancellation process should also strongly encourage the user to close their other accounts first, then return to SSO after they've done so. We can make this easier by providing them with links to info about some of those accounts, such as Ubuntu One and Launchpad."

I'm not sure if the existing wording is to your satisfaction on this regard. In any case it'd be a matter of changing the text itself. If changes are desired I suggest opening another bug, since the core request for this one is already solved. Thanks!