Google to delete millions of accounts forever in global purge that begins in under a month – eight ways to save yours
GOOGLE will begin culling millions of accounts in less than a month – and is urging users to save their profiles from the scrapheap.
The tech giant has been publicly planning a mass-deletion of accounts and the deadline is nearly here.
Billions of people use – and have used – Google all around the world.
These accounts can be tied to a number of services including Gmail, Google Drive and YouTube.
But many of those accounts now lie inactive, which Google says is a big problem.
The search engine giant says that deleting these old accounts is important to save them from being hacked by cybercriminals.
If you haven’t used or signed in to your Google account for at least two years then it’s eligible for deletion.
Once the account is gone, you’ll lose all access to its content.
That includes files and images saved in Drive or Photos, events in your Google Calendar, and the emails inside Gmail.
Google’s policy to delete old inactive accounts is already active.
But the deletions were delayed until December 1, 2023, giving people enough time to save their profiles.
Safety first
Although it might sound like a drastic move, Google said that it’s important for safety.
“If an account hasn’t been used for an extended period of time, it is more likely to be compromised,” Google said.
“This 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.”
Google said that abandoned accounts are 10 times less likely to have two-factor authentication turned on.
And these “vulnerable” accounts could be hijacked by cybercriminals for identity theft and spam campaigns.
Google won’t delete all inactive accounts immediately on December 1.
Instead it will begin a “phased approach” starting with accounts that were created and then never used again.
You’ll also receive a warning if your account is going to be deleted.
“Before deleting an account, we will send multiple notifications over the months leading up to deletion, to both the account email address and the recovery email (if one has been provided),” Google said.
How to save Google account from deletion
Thankfully there are several very simple ways to save your account.
“The simplest way to keep a Google Account active is to sign-in at least once every 2 years,” Google said.
“If you have signed into your Google Account or any of our services recently, your account is considered active and will not be deleted.”
Alternatively you can sustain your account by:
- Reading or sending an email
- Using Google Drive
- Watching a YouTube video
- Downloading a Google Play Store app
- Using Google Search
- Using Sign In With Google for a third-party app or service
And the eighth way to save your account is simply to have an active subscription on it, like Google One.
Your account will also be protected if it has any YouTube videos uploaded.