Google will begin removing dormant accounts after two years

(Image credit-  Ars Technica) You might have believed that a Google account was permanent, but according to the company's most recent blog post, inactive Google accounts will now be deleted. The new time limit is two years; after that point, Google will permanently destroy your data if there hasn't been any "activity" on your account. The business promotes this as a technique to stop spam. According to the blog post, "abandoned accounts are at least 10x less likely than active accounts to have 2-step verification set up," and if they are compromised, they can be used as spam and identity theft vectors. It's also definitely a good idea to delete outdated accounts and free up storage to reduce costs, as Google has been doing lately. [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] Image credit- TechCrunch[/caption] Only individual accounts are subject to Google's dormant account policy. It should come as no surprise if you have a business account and pay a monthly fee that you can remain inactive as long as money is received. The simplest way to keep a Google Account active, according to Google, is to login in at least once every two years. To be active, all you need to do is that. If you're already logged in, Google also provides the following instances of "activity": The following actions you take when you sign in or when logged into your Google Account may be considered activity:

• Emailing someone or reading one
• Google Drive use
• Watching a video on YouTube
• Installing a program from the Google Play Store
• Google Searching
• Using To access a service or program from a third party, sign in using Google.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="2560"] Image credit- MobileSyrup[/caption] 'Android check-ins' is listed as a workable kind of activity in other "inactive" literature on Google's support system. Thus, theoretically, simply plugging in an Android phone would be sufficient to maintain the validity of your account. Additionally, it claims that purchasing a Google One storage membership counts as "activity." It's interesting to note that Google Photographs appear to have their own unique "activity" measurements that could lead to the deletion of only your photographs. A photo must be uploaded every two years, visited on the Google Photos website or app, or both. Also read: Twitter’s purge: Elon Musk’s inactive user policy mandates logins every 30 days or accounts are terminated Accounts of users who have already exceeded the "inactive for two years" threshold won't be automatically terminated. The official date for the Great Google Account Purge is December 2023. Nobody should be surprised if their account is deleted because Google promises to 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)."