Ask HN: How can I delete a Substack account in Australia?

6 points by freefrog334433 157 days ago | 6 comments

Hello,

Since 10th December, Substack introduced age verification to login to your account. Unfortunately this breaks the process of deleting an account (which requires you to login).

How can I delete my account without completing the video streamed mug shot age verification process?

support@substack.com autoreply directs you to substack.com/contact -- which also requires you to pass age verification first.

The substack AI chatbot is useless - no hope of reaching a human. The process for cancelling a deceased account doesn't work either as the chatbot can't look up my account using my email address (presumably it is frozen until age verification). Tor and VPNs don't work as my profile includes my location in Australia, and my email address is Australian.

Any ideas? I'm about to cancel my credit card as a last resort.

Ninjasaan 155 days ago |

I have been advised to use the following template, which I have just now sent. I'll report back with what happens...

email: privacy@substackinc.com (and cc tos@substackinc.com)

"I am an Australian resident requesting the immediate deletion of my account and all associated data under the Australian Privacy Principles (APP 12). Substack has made it impossible for me to delete my account via the standard interface without submitting to invasive biometric verification, which I refuse to do. I am instructing you to terminate my account associated with this email address immediately. If you require verification, verify this request by replying to this email address, which proves my ownership of the account. If you refuse to delete my data without government ID, I will lodge a formal complaint with the OAIC (Office of the Australian Information Commissioner) for holding my data hostage."

freefrog334433 152 days ago | |

I tried this, and got a reply with a link, that redirected me to the age verification again. I replied to this asking them to manually delete my account, and they manually verified that I was an adult without asking for bio-metric verification. I just my calm, but critical emails convinced them, along with my paid subscription history that I was an adult :).

Ninjasaan 151 days ago | | |

Oh so you can log in and use the site as normal again now? I emailed privacy@substackinc.com back and forth a couple of times and today they deleted my account and refunded my last payment. They were very polite and helpful.

Ninjasaan 155 days ago |

I am having the exact same issue. Absolutely nothing can be done without taking photos of all angles of my face to be submitted to Persona Identities, with no other options available. I can log into accounts on any other website as normal, but Substack mow demands biometrics to even enter profile settings, which is the only way to unsubscribe or delete an account.

freefrog334433 152 days ago | |

Unfortunately social media website make it difficult to delete accounts. I wouldn't have minded if the options were to verify through bio-metrics or delete account.

Nextgrid 157 days ago |

Email their legal department?