Google is going to start deleting inactive accounts

[thewayne]

Whatever platform, if it hasn't been signed in to or used in two years, starting in December that account may go away. After concerns being raised about YouTube videos vanishing from deceased users, there has been an accommodation found, though I don't know what it is off-hand.

From the article: "The company said that if a Google account had not been used or signed into for at least two years, it might delete the account and content across Google Workspace, which includes Gmail, Docs, Drive, Meet and Calendar, as well as YouTube and Google Photos.

The policy change only applies to personal Google Accounts and not to those for organizations like schools or businesses.

In 2020, Google had said it would remove content stored in an inactive account, but not delete the account itself."

I didn't see the 2020 announcement. In related newts, the Muskbrat said that Twitter was going to start archiving old unused accounts.

I'm curious how many accounts they expect to go away. This is simply good system maintenance, I'm a little surprised it's taken them this long to get around to it. I think part of it is with the financial crunch hitting tech companies, they're trying to avoid data center expansion by freeing up space to buy themselves some time for the economy to improve.

https://www.reuters.com/technology/google-delete-inactive-accounts-starting-december-2023-05-16/

Comments

[mtbc]

I'd like my old Google account to go away. Navigating their credentials-recovery process at the time was rather more fuss than just adopting a new one. (I'm annoyed to have to have one at all, I created it because two-jobs-ago used gdocs a lot, but with an Android cellphone too it's rather enabling.)

[thewayne]

I have several Google email accounts, I use none of them for personal activity.  One, for example, I use for job searching to isolate my real email from potential employers searching for me.  One is for my PayPal account, etc.  But none of them are critical.