Google has announced its plan to begin deleting inactive accounts that have remained unused for a period of two years, starting from December 2023. The primary objective behind this initiative is to mitigate potential security threats such as spam, phishing scams, and unauthorized account access.
According to Google, dormant or forgotten accounts are particularly vulnerable to cyber attacks, as they often utilize outdated or recycled passwords and lack two-factor authentication. To address this concern, the company is updating its inactivity policy across its range of products, setting the threshold at two years.
Under the new policy, if a Google account remains unused or unaccessed for the specified duration, both the account itself and its associated content will be permanently deleted. This includes data stored within Workspace applications (such as Gmail, Docs, Drive, Meet, and Calendar), as well as content hosted on YouTube and Google Photos.
Google’s internal analysis has indicated that inactive accounts are at least ten times less likely to have two-step verification enabled. By removing these vulnerable accounts, the company aims to safeguard users from potential compromises that could lead to identity theft or the dissemination of unwanted and malicious content, such as spam.
Following the announcement of this policy update, Alphabet’s shares experienced a rise of nearly 3%, trading at $119.96 per share on Tuesday.
It is important to note that this inactivity policy will solely affect personal Google accounts and will not impact business accounts used by educational institutions, organizations, or other entities.
To ensure a smooth transition, Google will execute the account deletion process in a phased manner and will provide sufficient notifications to account holders prior to the deletion of their accounts. This approach aligns the company’s policy with industry standards regarding data retention and account management while also limiting the duration for which Google retains unused personal information.
Overall, this proactive step by Google aims to bolster user security and privacy by reducing the risk associated with inactive accounts and outdated security measures.
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