Google will delete accounts that have been inactive for two years this Friday – 11/30/2023 – Tech

Google will begin deleting accounts that have been inactive for at least two years next Friday (1st), according to a report published by the company in May.

When the tech giant deletes an account, it also deletes all data linked to the user. This includes all content from Gmail, Docs, Drive, Meet and Calendar, YouTube, and Google Photos.

The new rule only applies to personal accounts and not to users linked to organizations such as schools or companies.

Inactive accounts are more vulnerable to security breaches and this would be the reason to delete them, according to the Google statement. Old records are at greater risk of exposing passwords and other registration data in leaks and, in general, do not have the protection of two-factor authentication.

“Our internal analysis shows that abandoned accounts are at least 10x less likely than active accounts to set up two-step verification,” the company says.

To avoid deletion, the user can maintain activity in the following ways:

• Reading or sending an email
• Using Google Drive
• Watching video on Youtube
• Sharing photo
• Downloading app
• Using Google search
• Using Google to log in to other websites, platforms and services

The user can check the account’s activity status via this link.

Before deleting the account after two years of inactivity, Google will send notifications to Gmail and the recovery email entered during registration.

The policy does not apply to accounts that have been inactive for two years in these cases:

• Users who purchase Google products, applications, services or have active subscriptions do not have their account deleted
• Account contains gift card with active balance
• Account has an app or game published on the Play Store
• Account is indicated as responsible