Google to delete inactive on Gmail, Drive, YouTube, et cetera
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Google will delete from December 2023 inactive personal accounts across its platforms – such as Gmail, Docs, Google Drive, Meet, Calendar, Google Photos, YouTube – that have not been used for any activity in the past 2 years.
The policy will not affect accounts for organisations like schools or businesses.
The tech giant said inactive accounts are easily compromised or hijacked, hence the need to delete them.
Google Vice President of Product Management, Ruth Kricheli, announced in a blog post the decision was taken to protect other accounts on the platforms.
She said while Google has invested in technology and tools to protect its users from security threats – like spam, phishing scams, and account hijacking – an account is more likely to be compromised if it is not used for an extended period of time.
Kricheli explained forgotten or unattended accounts often rely on old or re-used passwords that may have been compromised or are without two-factor authentication set up.
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Policy update
“To reduce this risk, we are updating our inactivity policy for Google Accounts to 2 years across our products. Starting later this year, if a Google Account has not been used or signed into for at least 2 years, we may delete the account and its contents – including content within Google Workspace (Gmail, Docs, Drive, Meet, Calendar), YouTube and Google Photos,” Kricheli wrote, per Nairametrics.
“The policy only applies to personal Google Accounts and will not affect accounts for organizations like schools or businesses.
“This update aligns our policy with industry standards around retention and account deletion and also limits the amount of time Google retains your unused personal information.
“While the policy takes effect today, it will not immediately impact users with inactive accounts – the earliest we will begin deleting accounts is December 2023.
“We will take a phased approach, starting with accounts that were created and never used again.”
Before deleting an account, Kricheli added, Google will send multiple notifications over the months leading up to deletion, to both the account email address and the recovery email (if one is provided).
How to keep your account active
Google explained the simplest way to keep a Google Account active is to sign in at least once every two years.
“If you have signed into your Google Account or any of our services recently, your account is considered active and will not be deleted,” Kricheli stressed.
The expected activities include:
If you have an existing subscription set up through your Google Account, for example to Google One, a news publication, or an app, Google said it also considers this account activity and your account will not be impacted.
