Google’s latest policy indicates a noteworthy change for all inactive accounts. The company plans to delete all those Google accounts that have not been signed into or used for over 2 years. Almost all products by Google come under this policy’s purview, including Google Photos, Google Ads, Google Drive, YouTube, and Gmail.
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Statement by Google
Google’s main priority at the moment is to enhance user security and reduce the associated risks of upholding inactive accounts. Google released a statement mentioning, “Google also reserves the right to delete data in a product if you are inactive in that product for at least two years. This is determined based on each product’s inactivity policies.”
Policy in effect from
The policy would come into effect from December 2023. All contents stored in inactive accounts of users would be deleted. It is considerate of Google to let users know in advance before deleting their accounts. The company intends to send multiple notifications to the primary email address and the recovery email id as well if available.
Saving Google account
Users who have not used their Google account in a long time can still save it from being deleted. They just need to do some activities on their Google accounts.
They can do things like:
- Log in to the account if they are not already logged in
- Reading an email
- Sending an email
- Watching a video on YouTube
- Use Google Search
- Download an app from the Google Play Store
- Sign in to a third-party service or app using Google
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The policy would affect personal accounts and the accounts used by institutions or organizations like schools, businesses, etc.
