Google announced in a blogpost on Tuesday that it will close accounts which have been inactive for at least 2 years.
The company said it is taking the step to increase the protection of accounts as an analysis found that abandoned accounts are at least 10x less likely than active accounts to have 2-step-verification set up.
It said, “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.”
However, the company clarified that the new policy will only affect personal accounts and not apply to organisations like schools or businesses.
The deletion of the accounts will begin from December this year.
Google said it will conduct the process in a phased manner, starting with accounts that were not used after they were registered.
Before deleting any account, it will send multiple notifications to the email address and the recovery email if it has been provided.
The contents of the accounts on Gmail, Docs, Drive, Meet, Calendar, YouTube and Google Photos will be viped out in the process.
The blogpost also specified that users can save their accounts by signing in at least once in two years. It also mentioned what constitutes as activity for Google accounts:
• Reading or sending an email
• Using Google Drive
• Watching a YouTube video
• Downloading an app on the Google Play Store
• Using Google Search
• Using Sign in with Google to sign in to a third-party app or service
