Microsoft To Recycle Old Outlook Email Accounts

It has been revealed today that Microsoft is currently in the process of quietly recycling older Hotmail, Outlook.com and Live email account addresses and putting them back into circulation.

Although Microsoft has previously recycled older Hotmail accounts, this time it has rolled out to other Microsoft services. The company has confirmed to Webwereld, a Dutch IDG publication this week.

Yahoo has been recently criticised for using the same policy on their Yahoo accounts, which has brought up concerns over identity theft and privacy. Microsoft does not mention email account names will be recycled in their terms and conditions, but the company does confirms that this is their policy for closed account and email addresses.

Whilst owning a Microsoft Hotmail account users are required to access and log-in to their accounts at a minimum of every 270 days to keep the services active. Otherwise the email service provider has the option to cancel access to their service and permanently delete the data within your account.

Some reports have already come to light of older account privacy issues where emails are being sent to a new owner, but were intended for the previous owner and Yahoo was recently reported to be experiencing the same issues with its accounts.