According to a recent announcement, Google will begin erasing user accounts that haven’t been used for more than two years.
The warning applies to information in Google Workspace, YouTube, and Google Photos as well as services including Gmail, Google Docs, Google Drive, Google Meet, and Google Calendar. Ruth Kricheli, Google’s Vice President of Product Management, promises that this policy solely applies to individual Google accounts and won’t have an impact on accounts for institutions like corporations or schools.
Google plans to delete accounts “slowly and carefully, with plenty of notice” starting in December at the earliest. Google will notify you on several occasions in the months before cancelling your account. The account email and these emails will both be sent.
For security reasons, Google claims that inactive accounts are at least ten times less likely to have two-step verification set up than active accounts, making them more susceptible to fraud. When an account is abandoned, it frequently uses previously used or compromised passwords, lacks two-factor authentication, and gets less user attention when it comes to security. Once a user account has been stolen, it can be exploited for anything from identity theft to spreading spam or other undesired or harmful content.
Google advises that you sign in to your Google Account once every two years to keep your account operational and guarantee that your photographs and information are not erased.
Your account will be considered “active” if you read or send emails, use Google Drive, watch YouTube videos, download an app from the Google Play Store, use Google Search, or sign in to a third-party app or service using Sign in with Google.
Google advises beginning the housekeeping process if you’re concerned about what will happen to your old documents, pictures, and other records. Additionally, it’s crucial to supply a recovery email at sign-up and to ensure that it is current in your account settings.
In order to protect your data, please sure to keep your account active by logging in once every two years and providing a recovery email.
