Photobucket Photo & Video ransom is fake, you can get your data.
Photobucket are at it again, they are contacting former users without telling them that they are now a monetised platform. First message says "The photos you forgot about. We've been keeping your photos safe for years, wouldn't you like to see them again? Simply login today and discover what's inside. " Trying to log into the site without going via their autoresponder link did not work, no forgot password links worked, basically they want to keep you in the funnel they have created. When you get that working and try to log in you are told "We have changed our terms" offering "Agree" or "I do not agree." Select I do not agree and you get a bare faced lie, it basically tells you that if you do not agree you have to delete your account. They do not say anything about your data (including photos) which you have a right to under GDPR) subject access request process. Hold your nerve and select that you do not agree and you get "Are you sure you want to delete your account, once you delete your account your photos and videos will be permanently removed as Photobucket does not maintain a backup for deleted accounts" This is all a scare tactic, at this stage is says "looks like you aren't logged in" even if you are, not sure if that is relevant but it shows their platform is not working properly. If you then press button with "continue with account deletion" A new screen loads offering you $5 a month for 1tb of storage. That is not particularly competitive but not bad, however, I would not enter into a contract with a company that has these underhand tactics of ransoming my data. Persevere to delete the account and next screen says "we are sorry to see you go, please confirm deletion below" Then underneath that it has an option to request a download link for your data, I am not sure if this is because I am in the EU or whether they were bluffing when ransoming your photos. I pressed the download link and it worked, I got a zip file, I have no idea whether they were smaller or lower quality, they were only a few mb but from many years ago. If the company had sent me an email saying I had not logged in for years, they have my data safe and they have a special offer of $5 a month or $50 for the year I might have signed up, but this underhand comms and all the previous attempts to ransom just made me get my data and close the account. Hopefully this review will help others who are worried about the ransom funnel and inform the company that they don't need to use these underhand tactics. I have saved screenshots of my experience, I might put these online. ======== Thanks for the reply. I did speak to your support via zendesk, I deleted my account as I do not want any further contact with you. I hope you can learn from my experience.