Since opening to the public in February 2007, the number of Gmail users has continued to grow, making Google a leader in many markets such as email, online storage
According to TechUnwrapped , one of the cool things about Gmail is that Google makes it easy to sign up for a new account, while also providing 15 GB of free storage space for each account to use for many online services. different firms. The explosion of accounts has resulted in companies needing to manage large volumes of data and scaling infrastructure to manage that data
Unlike other services, Google has so far never taken action to delete an inactive account after a certain time. This leads to a large number of abandoned accounts that consume Google’s infrastructure resources, mainly storage. These are numbers that Google knows very well, and it looks like the company has finally decided to do something about these inactive accounts.
official blog According to a report to Google , The Keyword, the company has revised its policy on inactive accounts and will begin phasing them out later this year. However, the company’s approach to the matter is moderate, which is certainly appreciated by those who don’t use their accounts very often
Google didn’t use the cost of maintaining these accounts as a reason for the change, but instead stemmed from concerns about security. Forgotten or abandoned accounts often rely on old or reused passwords that may have been compromised, haven’t set up two-factor authentication, and receive fewer security checks from the company, the company explains. user”. According to the company, if an account is compromised, it can be used to compromise the owner’s security.
Also in the notice, if a Google account has not been used or signed in for at least 2 years, the company may delete that account and all data associated with that account, including content in the Workspace ( Gmail, Docs, Drive, Meet and Calendar), YouTube and Photos. However, this policy will only apply to individual Google accounts and not to organizational accounts
Google’s first account deletion won’t happen anytime soon, at least before December of this year, and starts with accounts that have already been created and never used again, the report said. In addition, prior to deletion, the company will send multiple notices in the months prior to deletion to both the account email address and the recovery email if provided by the user at the time.To prevent accounts from being marked as inactive, the company recommends that users log in at least every 2 years. This doesn’t necessarily only apply to accessing Gmail or Docs, but also being able to watch YouTube videos, download apps from the Play Store, use the Google search engine, use your account to sign in to apps, or log into apps. third party service