Google said Tuesday it’s deleting accounts that have been inactive for two years, as part of efforts to curtail security risks they pose to its user base.
Starting in December this year, Google may delete an account if it has not accessed any of its variety of services for two years, the company wrote in a blog post.
The US-based tech giant, which hosts billions of accounts across its platforms, said accounts that have not been used for an extended period of time, are more likely to be compromised, weakening existing security measures.
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“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,” Google said in a blog post.
The move follows the recent announcement by Twitter CEO Elon Musk to purge the social media platform of accounts that have not been in use for long. But while Musk’s decision is understood to be about reducing spam, Google said it is taking the step to assuage security concerns that arise due to dormant accounts.
“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,” the company wrote in the blog post
The policy only applies to personal Google Accounts, and will not affect accounts for organizations like schools or businesses, Google said, adding that as part of the account deletion, it will also remove content the user has stored in Google Workspace, YouTube and Google Photos.
Google said that it will send multiple notifications over the months leading up to deletion of an account and start the purge with those that were created and never used again. The new inactivity policy also will not affect business accounts and those used by schools, Google said.
To keep your account active, Google said you should engage in activities such as reading or sending an email, using Google Drive, watching a YouTube video, downloading an app from the Google Play Store, signing in to a third-party app or service with a Google account or conducting a Google search while signed in, at least once in two years.
The plan will take a phased approach, starting with accounts that were created and never used again. Google said the policy will not immediately impact users with an inactive account. The company didn’t say whether it plans to recycle usernames of the affected accounts.