In 2024, AI video was really starting to pick up steam. Runway introduced Gen-2, followed by the popular Gen-3. Kling AI hit the scene with 5-10 second clips that immediately pulled a lot of attention.
And OpenAI finally released the long-awaited Sora to mostly mixed reviews.
Where once AI video could be graciously regarded as “not great” by any metric, 2024 saw several models with great promise that generated unprecedented realism, physics, and prompt adherence.
Except Sora. Prompt Adherence wasn’t exactly its strong suit.
In 2024, I was working on a video project and into almost every AI video tool of merit that I could find. This led me to some services I still use to this day, and others I haven’t touched since.
That brings me to the topic of this post.
One of the AI Video services I used was being heralded as the next greatest AI video tool. Just like all of them were and still are. The faintest difference makes an AI tool the top dog across the web, whether it is or isn’t. But that’s another rant for a different day.
I gave this one a shot with both Text to Video and Image to Video. The results were less than stellar, especially when it came to human movements. Then again, maybe I’m wrong, and people can turn their heads all the way around their bodies.
When I finally called it quits for this service, I deleted all of my files individually. I was of course, given the warning that when you delete a file, it’s gone forever, never to return.
After that, I deleted the account.
Ghosts of AI Video Past
A few months down the road, I was cleaning out some of my 100+ tabs I typically have open. Yes, I know bookmarks exist. One day I might even start using them.
As I was closing tabs, I noticed one in particular. It was an MP4 video I generated on the account I had closed. It was opened directly, so I had the full file URL in my address bar. Rather than close the tab, for some reason, I decided to fresh the page to see if it would vanish.
It didn’t.
The video was still there.
My first thought was that it was being cached, and I wasn’t seeing the file being pulled from a live server. That makes a lot of sense, after all.
I cleared the cache, even restarted the browser and my computer itself. The video was still there.
“Well, obviously it’s being cached on their end of things,” says every web developer in the world.
I thought the same thing. Just to be sure, I saved the URL so I could visit it later, just to confirm.
It’s still there. It’s been well over a year.
So the question on my mind is, of course, why have they not actually removed the file I deleted?
Ask the AI
When I come across oddities like this, I like to run the scenario details by an AI tool to see how it might interpret the issue. In this case, we’re talking to Gemini.
Question for Gemini:
A user has a video file on their account. They delete it. Then they delete the account itself.
Does it make sense to continue caching that video file for well over a year after they deleted the file and their account?
Note: This is the real file. It can be loaded via the same URL from which the file was originally loaded before the video and account were deleted. So, over a year later, the file is still available.
Gemini’s Response:
From a technical, privacy, and cost-efficiency standpoint, no, it doesn’t make much sense. If the file is still accessible via the original URL a year after both the content and the account were deleted, you’re looking at a significant failure in the provider’s data lifecycle management.
Here is a breakdown of why this happens and why it is generally considered a “fail” in the tech world.
1. The “Ghost in the Machine” (Why it’s still there)
In large-scale systems, deleting a file isn’t usually like shredding a piece of paper; it’s more like removing the entry for that paper in a library’s catalog.
- Logical vs. Physical Deletion: When you clicked “delete,” the system likely performed a logical delete (marking the database record as “hidden” or “deleted”). A physical delete (actually wiping the bits from the disk) is supposed to follow, but clearly didn’t.
- CDN Caching: High-traffic videos are stored on Content Delivery Networks (CDNs)—servers located all over the world. If the “purge” command isn’t sent to the CDN properly, the file stays at the “edge” indefinitely.
- The “Orphan” Problem: By deleting your account immediately after the file, you might have inadvertently broken the link the system uses to find and scrub your data. The system no longer sees an “Owner ID” to associate with that file, so it just sits there, orphaned.
2. Why this is a Problem
Most companies try to avoid this for three main reasons:
| Factor | Impact |
| Legal/GDPR | Under regulations like GDPR or CCPA, users have a “Right to Erasure.” Keeping a file for a year after a deletion request is a major compliance risk. |
| Storage Costs | Video files are heavy. Keeping “dead” data from millions of deleted accounts costs a fortune in server overhead. |
| Privacy/Security | If that URL is discovered or leaked, your private content is still public, even though you took every step to remove it. |
3. The “Well Over a Year” Threshold
Standard industry practice for “grace periods” (in case you change your mind and want to reactivate your account) is usually 30 to 90 days. Keeping it for 365+ days suggests:
- Lazy Garbage Collection: The automated scripts meant to clean up deleted files are broken or haven’t been run.
- Poor Architecture: The “Account Service” and the “Storage Service” aren’t talking to each other.
- Immutable Storage: Some systems use “write-once” storage for backups where nothing is ever truly deleted, only hidden.
Is this common?
Unfortunately, yes. Many “free” services are notorious for having “sticky” caches. However, for a major platform, this is a bug, not a feature. If the video contains sensitive info, this is technically a data leak.
Is it standard practice to keep data for a year after account deletion? Rarely. Unless there is a specific legal requirement (like a litigation hold), keeping identifiable user data for that long is generally considered a violation of privacy principles like GDPR (Right to be Forgotten) or CCPA. It also increases the “blast radius” if the company suffers a data breach, as they are holding onto data they no longer have a “business need” to keep.
While that gives one possible reason for this, another possibility popped into my head. And it would be much easier to determine.
TOS and Privacy Policy Digging
As I tend to do these days, I jumped into the service’s Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Those are the legal documents everyone just ignores when they sign up for things.
Many, if not most, AI generation services include clauses that essentially grant them certain irrevocable rights to whatever you upload or create. Yes, when you upload a picture of yourself, the service gets the right to do practically whatever it wants with your image forever.
But that’s a discussion for another post.
In this case, I was looking for any information about the service’s deletion policy. That would at least confirm if they have one.
Turns out, they don’t. Not for my content, at least. If I request that my personal details be deleted, they’ll do so. They’ll even terminate my account if they feel like it. However, none of that refers to my uploads or generations.
Searching the docs, I couldn’t find anything about content deletion.
However, remember a few paragraphs back where I mentioned irrevocable rights to your stuff? They do that too, and since you can’t terminate those rights, they have no reason to delete the files. After all, they have the right to use whatever you upload or generate forever.
The Big Question: Which service is doing this?
I haven’t mentioned which service is doing this with my files, and the reason behind that is pretty simple: I want to see how long they keep this file live.
Once they finally kill it, then maybe I’ll update this post to let you know.
The thing to remember is that any service could be doing this.
Uploading photos, videos, or documents of any kind to a service or site you don’t own gives that service or site a copy for an indefinite period. Just because they say they’ll delete it, doesn’t mean they do. In some cases, like mine, they only remove them from your view.
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