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Updating our inactive account policies
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Safety & Security
UPDATING OUR INACTIVE ACCOUNT POLICIES
May 16, 2023
3 min read
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R
Ruth Kricheli
VP, Product Management
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--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
People want the products and services they use online to be safe and secure.
Which is why we have invested in technology and tools to protect our users from
security threats, like spam, phishing scams and account hijacking.
Even with these protections, if an account hasn’t been used for an extended
period of time, it is more likely to be compromised. This is because forgotten
or unattended accounts often rely on old or re-used passwords that may have been
compromised, haven't had two factor authentication set up, and receive fewer
security checks by the user. Our internal analysis shows abandoned accounts are
at least 10x less likely than active accounts to have 2-step-verification set
up. 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.
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.
The policy only applies to personal Google Accounts, and will not affect
accounts for organizations like schools or businesses. This update aligns our
policy with industry standards around retention and account deletion and also
limits the amount of time Google retains your unused personal information.
We are going to roll this out slowly and carefully, with plenty of notice:
* 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.
* We will take a phased approach, starting with accounts that were created and
never used again.
* Before deleting an account, we will send multiple notifications over the
months leading up to deletion, to both the account email address and the
recovery email (if one has been provided).
HOW TO KEEP YOUR ACCOUNT ACTIVE
The simplest way to keep a Google Account active is to sign-in at least once
every 2 years. If you have signed into your Google Account or any of our
services recently, your account is considered active and will not be deleted.
Activity might include these types of actions you take when you sign in or while
you’re signed in to your Google Account:
* Reading or sending an email
* Using Google Drive
* Watching a YouTube video
* Downloading an app on the Google Play Store
* Using Google Search
* Using Sign in with Google to sign in to a third-party app or service
If you have an existing subscription set up through your Google Account, for
example to Google One, a news publication or an app, we also consider this
account activity and your account will not be impacted. Additionally, we do not
have plans to delete accounts with YouTube videos at this time.
As previously announced, you will need to specifically sign in to Google Photos
every 2 years to be considered active which will ensure your photos and other
content are not deleted. Similarly, we will send multiple notifications before
we take any action.
CREATING A BACKUP PLAN FOR YOUR ACCOUNT AND ITS CONTENT
We encourage users to provide a recovery email at sign-up. It's important to
make sure this recovery email in your account settings is up-to-date.
We also offer a variety of free tools to help manage your account and provide
options to backup your data.
You can download and export your data to other platforms through our Takeout
feature, which has been available for over a decade. Similarly, Inactive Account
Manager allows users to decide what happens to their account and data when it
becomes inactive for a period of up to 18 months. Options users can select at
enrollment include:
* Sending specific files to trusted contacts of their choosing,
* Applying a Gmail autoresponder, and
* Deleting their account entirely
Today’s update helps us continue our advancements in account security, and helps
reinforce our commitment to keep your private information private. For more
information on this policy, please see our Help Center.
We've updated this post to clarify how this announcement impacts creator
accounts and accounts with YouTube videos.
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