There are new things and they are not good! Google is preparing to delete some Gmail accounts in just a few days.
Many millions of users of the Gmail email service will soon lose their accounts. As announced in May, Google will take action next December. The aim is to improve security because, according to a study by the company, accounts without activity are more likely to be hacked and used for fraudulent purposes, including the distribution of malware.
Therefore, accounts that have been inactive for two years (or more) will be deleted. In this sense, Google reserves the right to delete the account and the corresponding content, including documents and files that you have in Google Workspace (Gmail, Docs, Drive, Meet, Calendar) and in Google Photos.
However, this situation will not occur without notice. In fact, for accounts that are in this state, Google has taken care to notify users and give them the opportunity to restore the content that may be stored there. According to the company, inactive accounts are at least 10 times less likely to have two-factor authentication enabled than active accounts. Google emphasizes that the implementation of this security measure significantly increases the difficulty for criminals to gain unauthorized access.
So if you don’t use your Google Account regularly but don’t want to lose it, you can take a few steps to prevent it from being revoked:
– Send an email via Gmail;
– Use Google Drive (back up or delete files);
– Install an application from the Google Play Store.
– Watch videos on YouTube while logged into your account;
– Use Google Search in a connected session;
– Enter a website using your Google account.