If you’ve left your Gmail alone for the past two years, listen up. Google’s cleaning house on December 1, and if you don’t log in, they might toss out your emails, photos, and other stuff. This isn’t just about Gmail; it’s everything tied to your account, like Drive, Docs, Meet, Calendar, Photos, and YouTube.
Starting December 1, Google’s on a mission to delete accounts that stayed silent for two years. Ruth Kricheli from Google said this is all about security. Inactive accounts are like open doors for bad stuff. Without 2-step verification, they’re ten times more likely to get into trouble.
How to save your Google account
It’s super easy to save your account. Just log in once every two years. You can even read an email, watch a YouTube video, or search on Google while logged in. Google sent everyone an email in August, giving a heads-up about the cleanup. They promised more reminders before the cleanup day.
Google, why!?
Google says it’s all for safety. Inactive accounts are like magnets for spam, scams, and bad guys taking over. Deleting them is Google’s way of keeping trouble away.
“If an account hasn’t been used for an extended period of time, it is more likely to be compromised. 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. 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.” Ruth Kricheli said in the official blog post. The company explained everything about the “purge” in this blog post.
So, if you don’t want to lose your digital memories, make sure your Gmail sees some action before December 1. It’s not just about data; it’s about saving your stories and moments online.
