Haven't checked your Gmail in a while? Google may delete your account
Beginning in December
The company announced Tuesday that it will start deleting accounts which haven't been used for at least two years in an effort to reduce security risks.
Exterminating old accounts doesn't just mean that you lose access to your account.
Gmail
Work done in Google Docs and Google Workspace as well as Google Photos, other Google products, or videos uploaded by the affected user to YouTube will be lost.
Ruth Kricheli
In a statement,, the company’s vice president of Product Management, stated that the policy was designed to protect users against security threats, as accounts that have not been used in a long time were more susceptible to being compromised. Google said that an internal analysis found abandoned accounts are less likely to have two-factor authentication, a method of authentication that confirms a user's ID. Kricheli stated that abandoned accounts were "often vulnerable" and once compromised, they could be used to spread unwanted or malicious content like spam. The company announced that it would begin deleting accounts in December, at the latest. Google said that it would begin by deleting accounts which were created but never used.
Google will notify users via Gmail or any other email address they have provided before deleting an account. Kricheli stated that the plan to delete inactive Google Accounts only applies to personal accounts, and will not affect businesses or schools who use Gmail or other Google services. Google users who do not wish to have their accounts deleted and have not logged in for at least two years can still keep their account active by signing into Gmail, YouTube, Google Drive or Google Search or downloading any Google Play Store app.
Anyone with a subscription set up by a
Google Account
If a user is active, for example, if they are linked to a media outlet, their account will not be deleted.