Google has updated its deactivation policy for accounts to two years.
For Gmail users who do not use their accounts regularly, there is a possibility that they may lose access to their Gmail accounts in the upcoming month. In December 2023, millions of Gmail accounts are at risk of being deleted as part of a process specifically aimed at deactivating accounts that have been inactive for at least two years.
one in blog post Written by Ruth Critchley, Google’s vice president of product management, in May the company said it was taking steps to mitigate the risk. Google is updating its deactivation policy for Google Accounts to 2 years across all its products. Starting in December, if a Google Account has not been used or signed in for at least 2 years, we may delete that account and its content, including Google Workspace (Gmail, Docs, Also includes content from Drive, Meet, Calendar) and Google Photos. ,
The post reads, “This is because forgotten or inaccessible accounts often rely on old or reused passwords that may have been compromised, two-factor authentication has not been set up, and the user receives less security scrutiny.”
“Our internal analysis shows that abandoned accounts are at least 10 times less likely to have two-step verification set up than active accounts. These accounts are often vulnerable, and once an account is compromised “After all, it can be used for anything from identity theft to vectoring unwanted or malicious content like spam.”
Who is at risk?
This policy only applies to individual Google Accounts that haven’t opened their Gmail account in two years and won’t affect accounts for organizations like schools or businesses.
How to keep your account active
According to google blog post, The simplest way to keep your Google Account active is to sign in at least once every two years. If you’ve recently signed in to your Google Account or any of our services, your account is considered active and won’t be deleted. Activity can include these types of actions you take when you sign in or sign in to your Google Account:
read or send email
using google drive
watching a youtube video
Downloading an app on Google Play Store
Using Google Search
Using Google Sign-in to sign in to a third-party app or service
If you have any active subscriptions associated with your Google Account, such as Google One, a news publication, or an app, Google will take this ongoing account activity into account, and your account will remain unaffected. Furthermore, Google has no current intention to remove accounts associated with YouTube videos.