May 17, 2023
Google made a big change to its account management policy in a blog post, stating that dormant Google accounts would henceforth be deleted after two years of inactivity.
Google has imposed a two-year expiration date for accounts that show no “activity.” If an account stays dormant for this period, Google will destroy all connected data forever. The blog article emphasizes the hazards of abandoned accounts, noting that they are at least 10 times less likely to have applied critical security measures such as 2-step verification. When these accounts are compromised, they may become breeding grounds for spam and identity theft.
Individual accounts are the only ones affected by the new policy. Monthly fee-paying business accounts can stay dormant as long as the payment is received on time. To keep their active status, users must sign in at least once every two years, according to Google.
According to Google, activities include reading or writing emails, using Google Drive, viewing YouTube videos, installing applications from the Google Play Store, doing Google searches, and using the Sign in with Google function for third-party apps and services. Google also claims that ‘Android check-ins’ and subscribing to Google One storage are appropriate kinds of “activity.”
The sources for this piece include an article in ArsTechnica.
