Google announced in May 2023 that accounts that have been inactive for the past 2 years will be deleted.
Now the company has started warning the users by sending emails.
The emails state that if users do not log in to inactive Google accounts, they will be deleted on December 1, 2023.
This policy will apply to inactive Google accounts for Gmail, Docs, Drive, Meet, Calendar, YouTube and Photos.
The email states that multiple emails will be sent to recovery email accounts, including the user’s inactive Gmail account, until December and then the account or content will be deleted.
If nothing is done by the user till December, then his account will be deleted and will not be accessible again.
This policy will also be applied in future i.e. if the user does not use an account for 2 years then it will be deleted by the company.
What to do to avoid?
The easiest way is to log in to your Google account at least once every 2 years so that the company considers it active.
In fact, it is not necessary to log into Gmail, just using this account on YouTube, opening Google Drive, doing Google search or linking third party app to this account will be possible to prevent it from being deleted.
Note that in May, Google stated in a blog post that inactive accounts are at high risk of being hacked.
Google said that these accounts have weak security and once they are hacked, they can be used for illegal purposes or to spread spam content.
According to the company, Google accounts that have never been used after creation will be deleted first.
This policy will apply to personal Google accounts while accounts linked to organizations will not be affected.