Google has vowed to get rid of all inactive accounts that have not been in use for the past two years.
The tech giant was seen speaking about how strongly it is taking the issue after realizing that it’s serving as a huge online security threat. The company mentioned how the complete deletion process would be carried out after sending out several reminders or alerts to users to avoid any sort of inconvenience.
Moreover, the news comes after it was believed that hackers are making use of such accounts to carry out a string of online scams. This news would come into effect by December of this year as it purges all of the accounts that come under this clause.
Furthermore, the top search engine giant added how it would be opting for a more phased protocol that begins with accounts that were made but never used again.
It’s also interesting to mention how such a change arises almost three years after the company mentioned that it was keen on deleting content within an account including Google Photos or even the regular Gmail, especially if they weren’t in use for the past two years.
Moreover, this happened to coincide with the fact that the firm was going to end the unlimited storage feature that was being offered for free across Google Docs and Photos.
Now, we’re seeing the Android maker undergo an expansion for the possible deletion of just content to the whole account as it vows to work against hackers that misuse such places to carry out malicious schemes.
As mentioned by the firm recently, Google accounts that were not used are usually easier to attack or compromise as they’re secured using simple passwords that are old.
Moreover, research has also proven how such forms of analysis tend to abandon accounts that are ten times less probable to take on security measures like two-step verification. So that certainly puts them at a higher risk than all others including the likelihood of theft for some unwanted to malicious content including spam.
It’s not uncommon to find people caught off guard by such a decision by Google so that’s why it promises to first include several alerts over the new few months that lead to such deletions, for both accounts and email IDs as well as for the sake of recovery email.
Google also issued a statement on the matter where it says that they plan on rolling it out at a slow and careful pace and hope to ensure people take notice instead of abruptly removing it.
This kind of policy would solely be applicable to personal accounts owned by Google and not to those that are linked to an enterprise or organization like a university.
The classic way to keep Google Accounts in the active phase is by ensuring a sign-in every few years. Therefore, that’s a way for the system to realize that the user is active, and hence their account wouldn’t be deleted.
Read next: OpenAI CEO Voices Support For More AI Regulation At Historic Congress Hearing
The tech giant was seen speaking about how strongly it is taking the issue after realizing that it’s serving as a huge online security threat. The company mentioned how the complete deletion process would be carried out after sending out several reminders or alerts to users to avoid any sort of inconvenience.
Moreover, the news comes after it was believed that hackers are making use of such accounts to carry out a string of online scams. This news would come into effect by December of this year as it purges all of the accounts that come under this clause.
Furthermore, the top search engine giant added how it would be opting for a more phased protocol that begins with accounts that were made but never used again.
It’s also interesting to mention how such a change arises almost three years after the company mentioned that it was keen on deleting content within an account including Google Photos or even the regular Gmail, especially if they weren’t in use for the past two years.
Moreover, this happened to coincide with the fact that the firm was going to end the unlimited storage feature that was being offered for free across Google Docs and Photos.
Now, we’re seeing the Android maker undergo an expansion for the possible deletion of just content to the whole account as it vows to work against hackers that misuse such places to carry out malicious schemes.
As mentioned by the firm recently, Google accounts that were not used are usually easier to attack or compromise as they’re secured using simple passwords that are old.
Moreover, research has also proven how such forms of analysis tend to abandon accounts that are ten times less probable to take on security measures like two-step verification. So that certainly puts them at a higher risk than all others including the likelihood of theft for some unwanted to malicious content including spam.
It’s not uncommon to find people caught off guard by such a decision by Google so that’s why it promises to first include several alerts over the new few months that lead to such deletions, for both accounts and email IDs as well as for the sake of recovery email.
Google also issued a statement on the matter where it says that they plan on rolling it out at a slow and careful pace and hope to ensure people take notice instead of abruptly removing it.
This kind of policy would solely be applicable to personal accounts owned by Google and not to those that are linked to an enterprise or organization like a university.
The classic way to keep Google Accounts in the active phase is by ensuring a sign-in every few years. Therefore, that’s a way for the system to realize that the user is active, and hence their account wouldn’t be deleted.
Read next: OpenAI CEO Voices Support For More AI Regulation At Historic Congress Hearing
