Google to start deleting these type of accounts from December 2023

Google said on Tuesday that it will remove individual accounts and their content that haven’t been used or signed in for at least two years. The company said it will remove content from inactive accounts in Google Workspace (Gmail, Docs, Drive, Meet, Calendar), YouTube and Google Photos. While the policy took effect on Tuesday, it will not affect users with an inactive account immediately and the company will start deleting accounts from December 2023 at the earliest.

“The policy applies only to personal Google Accounts, and will not affect accounts for organizations such as schools or businesses,” Ruth Kricheli, VP, Product Management, Google, said in a statement. The update aligns Google policy with industry standards around retention and account deletion and also limits the length of time Google can retain unused personal information. “If an account hasn’t been used for an extended period of time, it is more likely to be compromised. This is because forgotten or unattended accounts often rely on old or reused passwords that can be compromised.”

Google’s internal analysis shows that abandoned accounts are at least 10 times less likely to have 2-Step-Verification set up than active accounts. This means that these accounts are often vulnerable, and once an account is compromised, it can be used for anything from identity theft to a vector for unwanted or malicious content such as spam. . “To mitigate this risk, we are updating our deactivation policy for Google Accounts across our products for 2 years,” the company said.

“We will take a phased approach, starting with accounts that were created and never used again,” it said. Prior to deleting an account, Google will send several notifications in the months leading up to deletion to both the account’s email address and the recovery email (if one is provided). As previously announced, people will need to sign in to Google Photos exclusively every 2 years in order to be considered active.