Google is preparing to do a “cleanup” in its services, and if you have old accounts that you wouldn’t normally get access to, maybe this is a good time to do it.
company Certain which will begin removing inactive personal accounts, in what will be considered a platform cleanup of unused accounts. Any account that has not been accessed for some time may be at risk of being deleted, along with all data on it.
In the message that the company posted on its blog, it warned that it would begin, at the end of this year, to remove these inactive accounts. The Company considers “inactive” accounts to be accounts that have not registered any type of login in the past two years.
These accounts may be at risk of removal, along with all of their associated content — which includes data from Gmail, Docs, Drive, Calendar, YouTube, and photos.
The company claims that the main reason for removing these accounts will be security related. Old accounts often end up with passwords that can be hacked or found to be insecure, and remain active even if users are not actively using them. This could allow attackers to exploit these accounts for a variety of purposes.
At the same time, these accounts may also lack alternative security methods, such as two-step authentication, and thus be more vulnerable to potential attacks and abuse.
The company’s data indicates that inactive Google accounts tend to be more likely to not have two-factor authentication activated, and therefore are at risk of being hacked.
Account removal is expected to begin in December 2023, starting with accounts that were created but were never actively used. Users at risk of deletion should receive several notifications in emails associated with the accounts, so that they can access them and avoid deletion.
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