Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

Thanks to CTOnews.com netizen Xiao Zhan for the clue delivery! CTOnews.com May 16 news, in 2020, Google said it would delete content stored in inactive accounts (but not in the account itself). Google has now updated its inactivity policy, announcing that long-unused personal accounts and their contents will be deleted from the end of this year. This initiative aims to save storage space, improve security, and reduce the retention time of personal information.

According to Google's announcement, if a Google account has not been used or logged in for at least two years, Google will delete the account and its content. This means that the email address of the account will no longer be used, and Gmail emails, calendar events, cloud hard drives, documents and other Workspace files related to the account will be deleted, as well as Google album backups. For the time being, Google has no plans to delete accounts containing YouTube videos.

Google said it would start implementing the policy in December 2023, at the earliest, and adopt a "phased" approach, starting with accounts that have not been used since they were created. "We will proceed slowly and cautiously." Google said it would notify the account's email address and backup email, if any, several times in the first few months before deleting an account.

In addition, this policy applies only to free Google accounts, not those managed by companies or schools.

How can I keep my account active? In addition to logging in regularly, staying logged in and performing some basic operations can also be counted as active, such as:

Read or send email

Use Google's cloud hard drive

Watch YouTube videos

Download apps at Google's Play Store

Use Google to search

Use Sign in with Google to log in to third-party applications or services

In addition, Google said that the use of logged-in Android devices is also considered an activity. Google albums already have a separate two-year login and use policy to determine whether they are active or not. At the same time, accounts with Play store subscription services, such as Google One or third-party apps, are also considered active.

In making this change, Google mentioned security because inactive accounts often have "old or reused passwords that may have been compromised" and are more likely to be breached. "our internal analysis shows that abandoned accounts are at least 10 times more likely to have no double authentication than active accounts," Google said. in other words, these accounts are often vulnerable, and once an account is breached, it can be used for everything from identity theft to spreading unnecessary or even malicious content, such as spam. "

CTOnews.com notes that unlike other services with different security / privacy implications, Google will not release deleted Gmail addresses for reuse.

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