Why your old Gmail accounts might get deleted

Google is expected to follow suit of social networks like Twitter when it begins purging inactive Google accounts, meaning old or dormant accounts may soon be deleted.

The company is expected to begin deleting accounts by December 2023 at the earliest in an effort to create a more safe and secure environment within its platform amid the global rise in cyber crimes.

‘’To reduce this risk, we are updating our inactivity policy for Google Accounts to two years across our products. Starting later this year, if a Google Account has not been used or signed into for at least two years, we may delete the account and its contents – including content within Google Workspace such as Gmail, Docs, Drive, Meet, Calendar, YouTube and Google Photos,’’ Ruth Kricheli, Google's Vice President for Product Management, said.

‘’People want the products and services they use online to be safe and secure. Which is why we have invested in technology and tools to protect our users from security threats, like spam, phishing scams and account hijacking,’’ she added.

Kricheli said that even with various protective layers in place, dormant accounts were 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,’’ she said.

Google said that internal analysis showed that abandoned accounts were at least ten times less likely than active accounts to have a 2-step verification set-up.

This means that these kinds of accounts are often vulnerable and, once compromised, can be used for anything from identity theft to a vector for unwanted or even malicious content, like spam.

The new policy by Google will only apply to personal Google Accounts. It will not affect accounts for organisations, like schools or businesses, while aligning to the industry standards around retention and account deletion and the period of time Google retains your unused personal information.

‘’We will take a phased approach, starting with accounts that were created and never used again. Before deleting an account, we will send multiple notifications over the months leading up to deletion to both the account email address and the recovery email,’’ Kricheli said.

Last week, Twitter CEO Elon Musk announced that the controversial micro-blog would purge accounts on the platform that have been inactive for years, potentially freeing up several usernames.

‘’We're purging accounts that have had no activity at all for several years, so you will probably see follower count drop,’’ Musk tweeted.