If your account has not been used or signed into for at least 2 years, we may delete the account and its contents – Google
On May 16th, 2023, Ruth Kricheli, VP – Product Management, addressees through his write up at Google Blog, under Safety & Security that “Starting later this year, if a Google Account has not been used or signed into for at least 2 years, we may delete the account and its contents – including content within Google Workspace (Gmail, Docs, Drive, Meet, Calendar), YouTube and Google Photos.”
Ruth mentions, if an account hasn’t been used for an extended period of time, it is more likely to be compromised. It 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.
To reduce this risk, we are updating our inactivity policy for Google Accounts to 2 years across our products.
The policy only applies to personal Google Accounts, and will not affect accounts for organizations like schools or businesses.
The actions will be rolled out slowly but carefully, with plenty of notices like:
- the policy actions for deleting accounts will begin from December 2023
- it will take a phased approach, starting with accounts that were created and never used again.
- multiple email reminders will be sent to both the account email address and recovery email (if one has been provided), before deleting an account
How to keep your account active
Actions user should take to avoid his account from getting deleted (within the period of every 2 years):
- 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
- Active subscription set up through your Google Account
- Specifically sign in to Google Photos every 2 years to be considered active which will ensure your photos and other content are not deleted
Creating a backup plan for your account and its content
Google encourage users to provide a recovery email at sign-up
Google also offer a variety of free tools to help manage your account and provide options to backup your data.
Options users can select at enrollment include:
- Sending specific files to trusted contacts of their choosing
- Applying a Gmail autoresponder, and
- Deleting their account entirely
Read more at Blog