Until recently, many people took their Google accounts for granted. They viewed them as seemingly everlasting repositories for their digital lives and relied on them as daily tools for email, storage, and even online searches. Unfortunately, those days are ending. According to Google’s updated inactive account policy, which the tech giant announced in May, accounts that last used at least two years ago could be deleted starting Friday.
As per a blog post by the company, the new policy was meant to enhance security since abandoned accounts are ten times more likely to be compromised and become vectors for spam and identity theft. In addition, Google claims it will be able to free up more storage by deleting dormant accounts and the data stored in them.
The company will provide multiple notifications over the months leading up to deletion to ensure that account owners don’t lose access to their data. Google says these will be sent to the account’s email address and recovery address (if one exits).
It will also allow people to set up a plan that dictates what should happen to their accounts after a certain period. For example, it lets people decide to email their trusted contacts if they will be inactive for more than two years. It’s the digital equivalent of a neighbor checking in on the older person living next door and notifying their next of kin when something appears amiss.
However, it’s important to note that account activity is measured based on reading or sending emails, using Drive, watching YouTube videos, downloading an app from the Play Store, or signing in to third-party services with your Google account. People who use a third-party service that uses Google’s sign-in system need to be counted in this measurement.
If you have an account deemed “inactive” and at risk for deletion, you should receive notices from Google sent to the email affiliated with that account and its recovery address (if one exists). Inactive accounts can be saved by logging in and ensuring some activity in the past two years. It’s also good to ensure that all your Google accounts have strong passwords and that two-factor authentication is enabled.
If you have any questions about this process, the best way to reach out is via Google’s help forum. It will be closed for the holidays but should reopen next week. You can also contact Google’s support team directly, but that won’t get you anywhere faster than waiting for the forums to reopen. Until then, it’s probably a good idea to avoid the temptation of using an old account for anything other than reading emails. And, of course, it’s always a good idea to back up your data before making any drastic decisions. You can import your data from another account with the Takeout tool.
