If you’re one of those people with a bunch of Google email accounts from years ago, today’s the day you’re going to want to log on to all of them.
Google’s policy for idle accounts used to be that it would wipe data from accounts that haven’t been used in two years. But the company announced in May that it would be changing its policy in that it could completely delete inactive accounts.
Google (GOOG) – Get Free Report said that unused accounts create a security risk because they rely on “old or re-used passwords” and likely don’t have two factor authentication.
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Ruth Kricheli, Google’s vice president for product management, made a statement in May saying that the deletion helps mitigate for this security risk.
“To reduce this risk, we are updating our inactivity policy for Google Accounts to 2 years across our products. Starting later this year, if a Google Account has not been used or signed into for at least 2 years, we may delete the account and its contents – including content within Google Workspace (Gmail, Docs, Drive, Meet, Calendar) and Google Photos,” Kricheli wrote.
Google did also say that accounts associated to organizations like schools or businesses will not be affected by the mass deletion. Any account that uploaded a YouTube video will also not be deleted as of now, according to Google.
And while the new rules are slated to kick in by Friday, Dec. 1, it isn’t necessarily going to be a straight deletion of every eligible account. The company said it would take a “phased approach” by prioritizing accounts that were “created and never used again.”
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However, if you want to ensure that your accounts, data, and information are not lost in one of your older accounts, there are several ways that Google will still consider your account as active.
These include reading or sending an email, using Google Drive, watching a YouTube video, downloading an app, using Google Search, or signing into Google using a third-party app or service.
So if you or one of your older family members may have stored a few important photos in that burner email from a half a decade ago, now’s the time to log onto that account to make sure you don’t lose those precious memories. While you’re at it, maybe it’s time to transfer them to an email you use more regularly.
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