There are only seven weeks left until the deadline to prevent the deletion of your Google account.
Google has been used by billions of individuals around the world, yet many of their accounts have since been abandoned. Google claims it can protect users’ accounts from hackers by removing inactive ones.
Your Google account could be deleted if you haven’t logged in or used it for over two years.
Everything in your account, including your history, will be deleted.
This means losing access to your Google account information, including drives, emails, meetings, documents, calendars, and photos.
The Google policy has been updated to include a two-year usage restriction.
However, it pushed back deletions to the first of December, 2023. That means you can still access your account by logging in.
In a blog post, Google detailed the removals’ impact on user safety from cybercrime.
It’s more likely to be compromised if an account hasn’t been used in a while, Google warns. This is because forgotten or unattended accounts are more likely to utilize passwords that have already been compromised, lack two-factor authentication, and are subject to fewer checks by the user.
According to Google, two-factor authentication is turned off in inactive accounts at a rate of 10 to 1. The message continued that spammers or identity thieves might take over these “weak” accounts.
Google won’t quickly delete dormant accounts. However, a “phased approach” to deletion will be implemented, starting with established accounts but never utilized.
You will be informed before your account is deleted.
In the months leading up to an account deletion, Google says it will send many emails to both the account and recovery email addresses (if one has been provided).
Among the many options for maintaining an active account are:
Using email for reading or sending
Utilizing Google Drive
Viewing YouTube
Getting an app from the Google Play Store
Searching on Google
Using Google’s Sign-In-With-Google feature on a non-Google product
