Use my new PC while resetting my digital footprint (deleting all my accounts)

Questions
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Hello to the PrivacyGuides community,

I’ve been 18 since November 2024, and it’s been over a year now that I’ve been deleting all the accounts I created when I was younger (child, teenager). It’s very time-consuming, as I have a total of 19 e-mail addresses (fortunately, they don’t all have the same number of accounts haha), some of which have a lot. For everything to do with deleting accounts, sending RGPD requests (I use librewolf) and following up requests with lists on Obsidian, I use my laptop (under Arch Linux) with a Windows 11 VM (lite 11). My current phone is used to monitor e-mail inboxes and to use the accounts I’m still using (for the moment), which will also be deleted at the very end. One goal: to delete all my old accounts and regain control of my digital footprint (I’ll only keep my father’s accounts, the rest will go)! I can tell you that it’s ultra-fastidious, but I’m making great progress and my future will thank me!

What’s more, I have a new phone waiting for me when the accounts deletion is finished (I assure you, I didn’t buy it for that, I’ve just been using my old phone for over five years). Incidentally, I’ve made a promise to myself that I won’t USE MY NEW DEVICES UNTIL I’VE FINISHED THE RESET OF MY DIGITAL FOOTPRINT SO AS NOT TO CONTAMINATE THEM. Because yes, the ultimate goal is to regain control of my digital footprint and secure the future digital footprint as much as possible (following your guide, of course). Except that recently, I set up my new gamer PC to replace my old laptop… You can see why I’m here: I haven’t finished deleting my accounts yet, and I’ve got a long way to go… That’s why I was wondering if I couldn’t use my new PC right now while I’m deleting every accounts, because I’m getting impatient to test it, without having any impact on my future digital footprint?

I had planned to install Arch Linux as minimal (manual installation, of course, as on my laptop). While waiting for my account deletion project to be completed, I just want to use it to play non-steam games using Steams (Proton). So I was thinking of creating a temporary user on my new machine just for steam, which I could delete entirely at the end, creating a disposable steam account (just to have access to steam during the accounts deletion), a disposable account on cs.rin (to have access to the steam dump). That’s it, I won’t be doing anything else on this machine other than that during the deletion period (no new accounts, no connections to old ones, no new e-mail addresses or old ones)…

Now, I came here because I have several questions:

I don’t have fixed Wi-Fi at home, so I use my 5G on my old phone (my current phone) and enable connection sharing so I can give all my devices an internet connection. Will the fact that I used it to connect my old devices to the internet and logged into my old accounts affect my future digital footprint if I use it for my new PC?

I’m using an old USB key for installation. If I format it properly, won’t it leave traces of my old devices on my new PC?

If I create a temporary user just for Steam, all I have to do at the end is delete it and the entire home folder so as not to leave any traces. Wouldn’t I need to reinstall the operating system from scratch?

Do you have any advice on how I can get my new PC up and running without polluting it with my old fingerprint, and avoid companies detecting my computer and associating it with a new digital footprint or my old digital footprint?

By the way, just so you know, all my old devices will be completely reset at the end. I won’t be using my old phone or laptop, because I’ll be using my new PC and phone. I will also delete the 19 e-mail addresses at the end of the account deletion. It’s like starting from scratch. It’s only the PC I can’t wait to use. So, I appeal to the whole community, which I love, by the way! I hope I haven’t bothered you with my text, haha. I accept all your advice, the goal is a clean and secure transition between my old footprint and my future digital footprint.

Good evening to you all.
Best regards,

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I think you’re mixing up fingerprinting and digital footprints here. Given your threat model (I’m guessing low), it’s perfectly fine to use a mixture of old and new accounts on your new devices. The important thing to do is maintain - preferably in a password manager like KeePassXC - a list of old and new accounts, and then consistently work to clean up the old ones over time. The long-term goal is to create compartmentalisation, but this can come gradually.

To answer to your specific questions:
Your connection is most definitely used for fingerprinting. There are very sophisticated methods for linking 2 accounts together. Again, given your threat model, I wouldn’t expend too much energy fighting this battle. Try to blend in when web browsing, and for very specific services, a VPN (Mullvad) might be helpful to hide your IP address.

Yes, formatting your USB drive will remove the files on it.

I think Steam knows what accounts have previously logged in on that device. An OS reinstall would help, but this feels like overkill.

My best advice is to use the new devices and work on things gradually. Even if your new devices were setup perfectly, you would eventually slip up (it’s human nature) and reveal something about yourself. Being too strict like that will give you privacy fatigue. Well done for picking Linux for your new machine. Go enjoy it but be mindful of your privacy. Good luck!