Google to delete accounts inactive for 2 years in safety push

Google, which hosts billions of consumer accounts, stated on Tuesday that it plans to delete accounts which have remained inactive for 2 years. The choice is a part of the web big’s ongoing efforts to strengthen safety measures for its huge consumer base, the corporate stated.

Beginning December this yr, Google might delete an account if it has not accessed any of its number of providers for 2 years, the corporate wrote in a blog post. As a part of the account deletion, Google may also take away content material the consumer has saved in Google Workspace, YouTube and Google Photographs.

Google stated that it’s going to ship “a number of notifications” over the months main as much as deletion of an account and begin the purge with those who have been created and by no means used once more. The brand new inactivity coverage additionally is not going to have an effect on enterprise accounts and people utilized by faculties, Google stated.

The standards for sustaining an energetic account are fairly minimal. Actions similar to studying or sending an e-mail, utilizing Google Drive, watching a YouTube video, downloading an app from the Google Play Retailer, signing in to a third-party app or service with a Google account, or conducting a Google search whereas signed in will all suffice to maintain an account energetic.

Google is taking this step to assuage safety considerations that come up resulting from dormant accounts, it stated. “Our inner evaluation exhibits deserted accounts are a minimum of 10x much less seemingly than energetic accounts to have 2-step-verification arrange. That means, these accounts are sometimes susceptible, and as soon as an account is compromised, it may be used for something from identification theft to a vector for undesirable and even malicious content material, like spam,” the corporate wrote within the weblog submit.

Google didn’t say what it plans to do with the usernames after deleting the dormant accounts. The corporate’s transfer follows Twitter chief government Elon Musk just lately asserting plans to purge dormant accounts and recycling the usernames.