18 May 2023, Bengaluru, India
Do you have a Gmail account or a YouTube account that has been sitting idle for the past two years? Well, for whatever reasons you might have created those accounts, Google will now rip you off those accounts soon, as per a recent update.
Google recently announced a significant change to its management of inactive account policies. Things are changing, and so is Google. As per the latest update, Google will delete every Google account that has been sitting idle, not been signed into, or not been used for the past two years. Google is deliberately working towards enhancing security features on the platform, and this step is a part of it.
In a recent report, Google revealed that the changes would take effect from December 2023. Google shared insights that the targetted accounts will be deleted, and all the content stored in that account, including Gmail, Docs, Drive, Meet, Calendar, YouTube, and Google Photos content.
Contrary to a previous statement on the same issue, Google had mentioned that it won’t delete the Google account but all the data stored within it. Fast forward to the present day, Google has decided to delete the contents present within such inactive accounts along with the account itself. The updated policy stand firm with the company’s commitment to safeguarding the privacy and security of its vast user base.
On asking why Google is taking such steps, the answer was simple – to prevent security risks to the vast user base. Google said that this step is important to prevent Google accounts from experiencing any kind of security breaches. The inactive accounts are most likely to have old passwords which are vulnerable and exposed to any kind of security breaches. Inactive accounts are more likely to be compromised because it is not being used and, therefore, not being monitored for security threats.
“Even with these protections (security tools offered by Google), if an account hasn’t been used for an extended period of time, it is more likely to be compromised. 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,” interprets Google on the pressing issue of account deletion.
Google’s internal analysis team also reports that inactive Google accounts are more likely to come across cyber threats than active accounts. There is an analysis that shows that inactive accounts are at least ten times less likely than active accounts to have 2-step verification set up, making them easy targets for hackers. Such accounts can be used for various cyber threats like identity theft, and any cyber crime expert can turn these inactive accounts into a vector for more malicious activities.
Google further said that it will send notifications before deleting any user’s Google account. The account deletion process will be executed in various phases. The first phase is likely to begin in December 2023, when accounts that have been created but never used will be deleted.
People who wish to activate their Google accounts can do this by logging in to that account or by reading/sending any mail, using Google Drive, watching a YouTube video, using Google Search, downloading an app, or using Sign In with Google to sign in to a third party app.
Apart from this information, if an account is not been used but has a valid Google One subscription then that account will not be accounted inactive, and Google will not delete it.
Source –India Today
