US technology giant Google has announced that starting from December it will delete accounts that have been inactive for two years.
The company said it is updating its inactivity policy to enhance security.
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According to Google, an account is more likely to be compromised if it has not been used for a long time.
“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,” it added.
The updated policy will impact content across Google Workspace, which includes Gmail, Docs, Drive, Meet, and Calendar, as well as YouTube and Google Photos.
It will only apply to personal Google Accounts, accounts for organisations such as businesses or schools will remain unaffected.
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By GlobalData“While the policy takes effect today, it will not immediately impact users with an inactive account — the earliest we will begin deleting accounts is December 2023,” Google said in a blog post.
It added that both the account email address and the recovery email will be notified multiple times before the account is deleted.
Recently, Twitter CEO Elon Musk announced that the micro-blogging site will remove and archive accounts that have been inactive for several years to keep the platform clean and updated.
“We are purging accounts that have had no activity at all for several years, so you will probably see follower count drop,” Musk said in a tweet.
