Twitter is not the only one pushing inactive account purging: Google also wants to remove such accounts. In its latest blog, the company explained that it is part of its security advancements, adding such accounts could be used maliciously once compromised.
The search giant explained that without frequent security checks and proper protection like 2FA, abandoned accounts become easy targets and can be used for spam, phishing scams, and even account hijacking.
“Our internal analysis shows abandoned accounts are at least 10x less likely than active accounts to have 2-step-verification set up,” Google writes in its blog post. “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.”
As per Google, this new update in its policy will deem an account inactive after two years without being used across the Google ecosystem. Nonetheless, the search giant stressed that it would only apply to personal accounts and not to accounts for schools or businesses. Moreover, it won’t affect such accounts being actively used for existing subscription services.
To warn about this decision, Google promised to send notice to the account email address and the recovery email of the inactive accounts. And although Google said that the account deletion process would start as early as December 2023, it said that they would be eradicated in phases, “starting with accounts that were created and never used again.” Once deleted, any content of the account will be deleted, including files shared or uploaded to Gmail, Docs, Drive, Meet, Calendar, YouTube, and Google Photos.
On a positive note, saving an inactive account is simple. As mentioned above, a Google Account will remain active as long as it is being used on any of Google’s services. That means if you are using your account for any of Google’s services or using the “Sign in with Google” option to sign in to a third-party app, you should be okay. Also, simple activities like watching a YouTube video, using Google Search and Google Drive, or downloading from Google Play Store while logged into your account should be enough.
