If you have an inactive Google Account, you must ensure its preservation yourself, if there is anything worth keeping in the account.
American internet company Google is starting to delete Google accounts that have not been used for at least two years. According to the company’s announcement, the goal is to improve information security, as rejected accounts are often poorly protected and may already be in the wrong hands.
If the account is found to be abandoned, Google may delete it and its contents, including Google Workspace (Gmail, Docs, Drive, Meet, Calendar), YouTube, and Google Photos.
Read more: “Purge” – Elon Musk scares Twitter users
The policy applies to personal accounts of ordinary people. Google accounts for schools and businesses won’t be touched.
The first accounts will be deleted as early as December this year. Accounts that have not been used since they were created will then be destroyed.
Google warns users about this several times, not only for the user’s Gmail, but also for the backup addresses they have set up, if any are available.
The company is a bit vague about how an account is considered active. On the one hand, Google says that simply logging into an account is sufficient, but on the other, it lists things that count as activity, such as watching YouTube videos, an application from the Google Play store Downloading, using the Google search engine or reading e-mails. It is possible to read Gmail with an external email program.
Read more: Google introduces a new way to log in – no more passwords
Regarding the search engine, you must remember that you can use it even without logging in to Google. Then its use does not count as an indication of activity. If the user has a paid subscription through Google, for example, Google One, a newsletter or an application, this is counted as using the account, and the account is not deleted.
Image Services Google When it comes to images, you have to be careful. Google requires that users log into Google Photos exclusively at least every two years, so that photos and other content are not deleted.
Unused data has been a trigger before. In 2020, Google said it would remove data from inactive accounts, but not from the accounts themselves.
– If you don’t use Gmail, Google Drive (including Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, Drawings, Forms, and Jamboard) or Google Photos for two years, your content in unused products may be removed (with a reasonable notice period). later), Google said at the time.
Read more: Google will start deleting your data if you don’t use the services often enough
The company justified the change in view of the growing demand and the need to provide a good recording service. It was seen as a new way to get users who enjoy free access to Google services.
It is likely that among inactive accounts, for example, there are many accounts that were forgotten after the Android user switched to an iPhone user and the Apple ecosystem. In this case, it is possible that there is a lot of valuable content left in the Google Account, such as photos. If they aren’t backed up elsewhere, the images will need to be recovered if you want to keep them.
You can download and transfer your data to other services using Google’s Takeout function.
Twitter owner Elon Musk recently announced that the service will begin deleting and archiving user accounts it has left behind for several years. According to Musk, it is necessary to reuse the account username.
