Google has announced its intention to remove dormant Gmail accounts, starting December 1, as outlined in a recent blog post on the platform’s help center.
The tech giant defines an account as inactive if the user hasn’t engaged in any activity, such as logging in, reading or sending emails, using Google Drive, watching YouTube videos, sharing photos, downloading apps, or conducting searches while signed in, for a period of two years.
This policy exclusively applies to personal accounts and does not extend to accounts associated with employers, schools, or other organizations.
The blog post emphasizes, “Google products reserve the right to delete your data when your account has not been used within that product for 2 years,” with the earliest deletion date set for December 1, 2023.
Certain exceptions to this policy exist, including accounts used for purchases in the Google Play store or those with an active gift card balance.
Google assures users that it will provide advance notice of impending deletions by sending emails to the affected accounts and any available recovery email addresses.
Users are encouraged to take necessary actions to prevent the deletion of their accounts if they wish to retain access to their data.
