Google will clear some of the unused personal accounts in the near future. The company warned anyone who isn’t signed in to their accounts that those accounts could be deleted soon. All content linked to these accounts will also be lost.
“Beginning later this year, if a Google Account has not been used or signed in for at least 2 years, including content within Google Workspace (Gmail, Docs, Drive, Meet, Calendar), YouTube, and Google Photos,” Google said in a blog post. , we may delete the account and its contents.
According to the blog post, the decision to delete accounts is due to security concerns. It is stated that unused accounts that can be opened with old passwords that can be seized by hackers can be used for malicious purposes. In addition, these old accounts may not have used security features such as two-factor authentication or the new passkey that was introduced more recently.
Google says: “Our internal analysis shows that abandoned accounts are at least 10x less likely to have 2-step verification than active accounts. That is, these accounts are often vulnerable, and once an account is hacked, they can be used for everything from identity theft to spammy or even malicious content tooling.”
Deletion of unused Google accounts will begin in December 2023, starting with accounts that were created but never used. Multiple notifications will be sent to account users before any action is taken on the accounts to be deleted. This decision will only affect personal accounts. Google Workpace accounts for business and education will not be affected by this decision.
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