Warning: Google to Delete Accounts That Have Been Inactive for 2 Years

Google says it will send multiple warnings before it starts deleting old accounts in December. The move is designed to prevent hackers from using inactive accounts to send scam emails.

Got a Gmail account you still want, but rarely use? Google is warning consumers it could delete those accounts if they’ve been inactive for at least two years.

The new policy(Opens in a new window) takes effect in December, at which point Google may purge inactive accounts that apply. “We will take a phased approach, starting with accounts that were created and never used again,” the company added.

The change comes nearly three years after Google announced(Opens in a new window) it could delete the contents within a user’s account, such as in Gmail or Google Photos, if they had been inactive for two years. This coincided with it ending free unlimited storage for Google Photos and Google Docs.

The search giant is now expanding the potential deletion from content to the full account in an effort to crack down on hackers misusing Google services for phishing schemes. As the company notes, unused Google accounts tend to be easy to break into because they’ve often been secured with old, easy-to-guess passwords.

“Our internal analysis shows abandoned accounts are at least 10x less likely than active accounts to have 2-step-verification set up. Meaning, these accounts are often vulnerable, and once an account is compromised, it can be used for anything from identity theft to a vector for unwanted or even malicious content, like spam,” Google said in the blog post.

To prevent catching consumers off guard, the company will send affected users “multiple notifications over the months leading up to deletion, to both the account email address and the recovery email.”

“We are going to roll this out slowly and carefully, with plenty of notice,” the search giant added. So Google won't wipe out inactive accounts instantaneously. The policy also only applies to personal Google accounts—not accounts belonging to companies or organizations such as schools.

“The simplest way to keep a Google Account active is to sign-in at least once every 2 years. If you have signed into your Google Account or any of our services recently, your account is considered active and will not be deleted,” the company added.

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