Google is Going to Delete Inactive Gmail and Photos Accounts which will Include all Your Data

Google has announced that it is going to delete all the inactive Gmail accounts, including Google Photos, Gmail Messages and Google Docs on 1st December, 2024. This decision wasn’t all of a sudden as Google started warning all the inactive Gmail accounts about 18 months ago. Right now, Google is still sending out emails to different users to reply and take suitable measures if they do not want their inactive Gmail accounts to get deleted.

It is worth noting here that Google is only deleting Gmail accounts that have been inactive for more than 2 years. Only personal accounts will get deleted and there will be no effect on business and educational accounts. During account deletion, all user data that is within that account will get deleted.

Google has determined some factors which conclude as being active on your Gmail account. Those factors include sending or reading emails, watching a YouTube video, using Google search, using Google drive, sharing a photo and using that email to sign into third party apps or services. If a user is doing any of these activities on their Google account, this means that this counts as an activity and your account won’t be concluded as inactive.

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Google has about 2.5 billion active users right now and Google is deleting inactive accounts because of increased cybercrimes. Cyber criminals can easily access inactive accounts as they are vulnerable and can use those accounts for malicious activities. vice president of product management at Google, Ruth Kracheli, says that abandoned accounts have ten times more chance of not having a 2 factor authentication than active accounts. This means that they can easily get in the hands of a hacker.

If users want to save their accounts from deletion, it is best that they log in to their inactive accounts every three months. Ensure all security checkup and if you cannot remember the security details of the inactive account, use the Google account recovery process. It is good to have more than one Gmail account that you can use anytime if something happens to your primary Gmail account. Make sure to forward every important document and email to your secondary Gmail account so all cannot be lost. Using two factor authentication is also a good way to ensure the security of your account. If you want to do a security check on your Gmail account, use Google’s security checkup which is free and helpful to check if everything is alright on your account.

Image: DIW-Aigen

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by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World