Unless the secret (password, certificate, hardware token, whatever) isn't absolutely required to access your data "because maths", then employees will have access to your data?

I guess there's a distinction to be made... perhaps if you go through that process you can regain control of your handle but not private data. But that wouldn't be useful since unless you're using a system which warns that your identity has changed (e.g. a new pgp key) then old contacts will continue to contact you, spilling the beans on old conversations?