(WGN) — Google has announced plans to begin deleting personal accounts and all of their content en masse to reduce the risk for its more active users.
In a Tuesday announcement, the company stated they are updating their inactive account policies and plan to begin deleting accounts that have not been used or signed into for at least two years. They state inactive accounts are more likely to be compromised leading to identity theft and/or unwanted content like spam.
The mass deletion won’t happen immediately. In the policy update they state, “We are going to roll this out slowly and carefully, with plenty of notice,” going on to say the earliest accounts will be deleted is December 2023. They plan to take a phased approach by starting with accounts that were created and then never used again. The update also states multiple notifications will be sent over the months leading up to deletion.
Don’t want that inactive account cleared from Google’s servers? Simply sign-in to the account at least once every two years and use any Google service such as reading or sending an email, watching a YouTube video, or using Google Search. The key thing is to sign-in.
Google added that if a user has an existing subscription, such as a news publication, that is considered account activity and your account will not be impacted. They will also not delete any business or school-associated accounts.
See Google’s full update to their inactive account policies here.