Information has been permanently deleted, for small values of permanently

Summary

As part of a periodic purge of unused online accounts, I deleted my account from a company ten months ago. Let’s call that company Contoso. I received a confirmation that said, “Your personal information and items associated with your account have now been deleted. This action is permanent and cannot be reversed.” Yesterday, I got an email from Contoso informing me that they have updated their . So I guess their “confirmation” of “permanent” and “irreversible” deletion of my personal information was premature, seeing as they still have my email address.