Creating a Google account has been really simple for many years. The turning point in this regard undoubtedly came when Gmail opened up to everyone after months of exclusive invitation-only access. This happened in February 2007, more than 16 years ago, and since then the number of users of search engine services has not stopped growing, and it is positioned as a leader in many markets: e-mail, online storage, etc.

The company offers enhanced versions of its services to individuals and businesses, which is one way of monetization, but the volume of free accounts is simply enormous and from time to time there are reasons that force users to create a new account, which will be added to the one (or ones) you already have. And this, if we take into account that Google offers 15 gigabytes for each account, allows you to quickly imagine the volume of data managed and, therefore, the size of the infrastructure necessary to manage it.

Unlike other services that delete inactive accounts after a certain period of time, until now Google has never acted in this regard, which undoubtedly must lead to a huge number of abandoned accounts, but to a lesser or greater extent they consume Google infrastructure resources, mainly storage. We can assume that these are figures that Google knows well, and it seems that they have finally decided to do something about it, although this is not their only motivation.

As we can read in The Keyword, the company’s official blog, Google has adjusted its policy regarding inactive accounts and will begin removing them later this year. However, and as you will see when we look at the policy defined by the company for this purpose, the truth is that its approach is very moderate in this regard, which will undoubtedly be appreciated by those who rarely use their accounts.

But before I get to that point, I think it’s interesting to mention that the cost of these accounts is not the argument Google is using to explain this change. Instead of, states that the main concern is the security of these accountsbecause according to what they say, “forgotten or neglected accounts often rely on old or reused passwords that may have been compromised, do not have two-factor authentication set up, and receive fewer security checks from the user«. And the problem is that if an account is compromised, it can be used to compromise the security of its owner.

So, how can we read if the Google account has not been used or logged in for at least 2 years, the search engine company may delete the account and all data associated with it, including content in Google Workspace (Gmail, Docs, Drive, Meet, and Calendar), YouTube, and Google Photos. However, it is clarified that this policy will only apply to personal Google Accounts and will therefore not affect organization accounts.

And how will Google proceed? Firstly, despite the fact that it was announced today, the account will be deleted for the first time at least before December of this yearand will start with accounts that were created and never used again. In addition, prior to deletion, Google will send several notifications in the months prior to deletion, both to the account email address and to the recovery email if the user provided one at that time.

To avoid the account being marked as inactive, Google suggests logging in at least once every two years, but this is not limited to accessing Gmail or Google Docs. These are all actions What the company suggests:

• Read or send an email.
• Use Google Drive.
• Watch the video on YouTube.
• Download the app from the Google Play Store.
• Use the Google search engine.
• Use your account to sign in to a third-party application or service.
• Maintain subscriptions to Google or third-party services/apps set up through your account.