Google announced this Tuesday an update to the company's inactive accounts policy by communicating the cancellation after two years of inactivity. Therefore, if the user does not log in or use the services during this period, all data stored in Workspace (Gmail, Docs, Drive, Meet, Calendar), YouTube and Google Photos may be deleted. Note that the announcement occurs after it has been Passkey feature implemented.
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Google's policy change: times and modalities
This measure it only affects personal accounts, while corporate profiles such as companies and schools will not see their files deleted even after 2 years of inactivity. The company announced: “This update brings our policy into line with industry standards on account retention and deletion, and also limits how long Google retains unused personal information.” This policy update will not be implemented starting today, then users will still have a long time to log in their account to avoid deletion. The first group of deletions should only happen starting from December 2023 and starting from accounts created and never used again.
How to prevent your Google account from being deleted
Google reiterates that it varies alerts and notifications will be sent to the account owner in the months prior to deletion, both to the account email address and the recovery email (if provided). Program One subscriber accounts will not be affected, as the subscription sets up the activity. To maintain your account, it is enough to be active at least once a year. This includes a variety of actions: sending an email, using Google Drive, watching a YouTube video, downloading an application from Google Play, using Google search, or accessing a third-party application using an account.
How to keep the account active?
- read or send an email
- use Google Drive
- watch a video on YouTube
- download an app from the Google Play Store
- use the Google browser
- Use of Login with Google to access a third-party app or service