Google will delete millions of google accounts across its platforms including Gmail, Google drives and Google Docs, YouTube, Meet and Calendar in about two weeks.
According to Google’s Product Management Vice President Ruth Kricheli, the activity will begin on December 1, 2023.
Notably, the company stated that those affected will be owners of accounts that have remained dormant for two years or more.
Kricheli noted that the move was necessitated by older accounts being susceptible to hacks.
“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,” she stated.
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Google Explains How It Will Implement the Move
The tech company further detailed that the email addresses associated with the deleted accounts would become inaccessible after the move.
However, Google noted that it would not be deleting YouTube accounts that had already uploaded videos, adding that some of the abandoned videos could contain historical evidence.
Additionally, the tech giant indicated that its first focus will be deleting created accounts that have never been used.
Users were also notified that the process would be done slowly and carefully and would not affect other active accounts.
Similarly, accounts managed by businesses or schools will not be affected as well as those with active Play Store subscriptions, such as Google One or third-party apps.
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Furthermore, Google will send notifications to dormant account owners several times before the deletion through the provided email and a recovery email.
How to Save your Account from Deletion
To save google accounts from deletion, users can perform these simple activities, which will maintain account activity.
- Read or send an email using your inactive account.
- Use Google drive to save content.
- Watch YouTube videos using the inactive account.
- Download apps from the Google Play Store using google search engine.
- Sign in into different accounts with the inactive google account.
