It’s time to check in on any Google accounts you haven’t used in two years or longer. Google announced an update to its policy of deleting data from old, unused accounts. Starting soon, they’ll delete the whole account, the Verge reported.
The purge shouldn’t begin before December of 2023, so you’ve got a little time to look up all that unused login information, according to Mashable.
The Verge reports that 9to5Google posted that deleted Gmail addresses will not be available for reuse.
Google released a statement saying the reason for this is to improve security.
“If an account hasn’t been used for an extended period of time, it is more likely to be compromised,” Google said in a statement.
“This is because forgotten or unattended accounts often rely on old or re-used passwords that may have been compromised, haven’t had two factor authentication set up, and receive fewer security checks by the user.”
According to Google,” account activity is measured based on actions like reading or sending an email, using Google Drive, watching a YouTube video, downloading an app on the Google Play Store, using Google Search, or using Sign in with Google to sign in to a third-party app or service,” the Verge reported.
Google said it will first delete accounts that were opened and never used. And it will send out tons of notifications before it deletes any account.
