I have had an Autodesk account for what seems like forever, starting with the ADSK forums. This account had built up a history of posts, and articles on the knowledge network.
Over the years as I moved between employers, I would bring my account with me, updating my account email so that licenses could be assigned to me. The account had both a personal and work aspect, nicely separated, and it worked well.
But then Autodesk moved down the path of cloud platforms like BIM 360, and similar. At first I did not think too much of it. That is, until I recently changed employment.
After changing my account email address, I found that my account was still connected to all those ADSK cloud platforms going back many years, including the projects on those platforms.
I still have access to projects that I shouldn't have access to. Projects that could be considered confidential, and projects in accounts for companies who technically are now competitors to my current employer.
In return, those platforms are now holding onto my personal data, and to make it worse, I have absolutely no way to remove myself from those platforms and projects.
The problem here is that the Autodesk platforms are connecting to user's accounts by way of some GUID. If the users account's email changes, it still remains connected to the platform and projects. I realise that connecting by way of the email is not a perfect solution, but the fact that account recovery is via an email that I no longer have access to would help limit its longevity.
And lastly, since I still have access to platform and project data, I continue to have some level of moral responsibility to that data. Should my ADSK account be breached and project data compromised, and if tracked back to me, there could be legal ramifications. Not being able to remove myself from the projects is troublesome.
The above became obvious as I recently changed employers. What was many years of not being an issue, now is.
As a result I now have my older personal account (which I still need removed from projects), and a newer work account moving forward.
I'm hoping the Autodesk platforms could be greatly improved in regards to user account connectivity to better protect project and user data.