The company recently updated its policy regarding Google accounts that have remained inactive.
We will examine the reasons for these changes as well as their impact.
In an article published by the head of product management at Google, it is claimed that these measures were taken in order to meet users’ expectations for the security and reliability of online products and services. Google has decided to invest in technologies and tools to strengthen the security of users of its platforms, protecting them against threats such as spam, phishing and account takeovers.

However, despite these security measures, Google considers that accounts that have been inactive for a long time could be compromised. These accounts, whether abandoned or neglected, often have vulnerabilities because they rely on old, potentially compromised passwords and lack security measures like two-factor authentication. As a result, these accounts are up to 10 times less likely than active accounts to be audited. They could be exploited for undesirable purposes, including identity theft or the distribution of unwanted or even malicious content, according to Google’s internal analyses.

To reduce this risk, Google has updated its inactivity policy for all Google accounts that are two years old. Starting at the end of the current year (2023), any Google account that has not been used or logged in for at least two years may be deleted, including Google Workspace content associated with that account such as: “ Gmail, Docs, Drive, Meet, Calendar and Google Photos. This measure does not apply to accounts of organizations such as businesses, schools and others. Google plans to implement this policy gradually, starting with accounts that have been created but never used.

Before an account is actually deleted, Google will send several notifications over the previous months to the account’s email address as well as the recovery address if it has been configured.

To maintain an active Google account?

The simplest way to protect yourself against these measures is to log into your account at least once every two years. Several conditions are listed by Google to maintain account activity, such as:

• regular connections

• using Google services

such as Gmail, Drive, YouTube, etc., or having subscriptions through the Google account. It should be noted that Google does not currently plan to remove accounts containing YouTube videos.

In summary, Google has updated its policy of removing inactive accounts for security reasons, and users are advised to stay active by regularly logging in and using Google services in order to keep their accounts active