Get the best Samsung deal, today: Galaxy S23 Ultra. Must have Galaxy Buds 2 Pro promotion!

SamMobile has affiliate and sponsored partnerships. If you buy something through one of these links, we may earn a commission.

Google will start hacking away at inactive accounts later this year

General
By 

Last updated: May 17th, 2023 at 14:10 UTC+02:00

Google is taking drastic measures to improve the security of its services, and the company announced a new plan to start deleting inactive accounts later this year. The search engine giant says inactive, forgotten, or unattended accounts are more likely to be compromised. They often rely on old or re-used passwords, they lack two-factor authentication, and they haven't received user security checks.

From December 2023 onward, Google says it will start deleting accounts that have been inactive for two years or longer. The account's contents will be deleted across different platforms, including Google Workspace (Gmail, Docs, Drive, Meet, and Calendar), YouTube, and Google Photos.

Speaking of YouTube, as Android Police notes, this new policy may cause old videos uploaded from now-inactive accounts to be deleted from the platform, no matter how popular and viewed they may be. But maybe that's not going to be the case.

Judging by Google's new policy, the company thought things through and isn't approaching this thing lightly. It won't start nuking inactive accounts left and right at random. There is logic to the method, so perhaps the company will consider keeping inactive accounts whose YouTube videos still get traction.

You'll have plenty of options and chances to avoid getting your account deleted

Firstly, it's important to note that this new policy only applies to personal Google accounts and won't affect accounts belonging to organizations, such as businesses or schools, no matter how old and inactive they may be.

Secondly, the first inactive accounts to go will be those that were created and never used again. Furthermore, Google says it will send plenty of notices before it takes action and deletes an account. The company will send multiple notifications over the months leading up to deletion.

And finally, users can easily avoid getting their inactive accounts deleted and reactivating them by taking simple actions such as reading or sending an email, using Google Drive, watching a YouTube video, downloading an app from the Play Store, using Google Search, and signing in with Google to a third-party app or service.

General GmailGoogleYouTube

You might also like

Galaxy Watch 6 to face plenty of competition from Google, OnePlus, Xiaomi soon

Galaxy Watch 6 to face plenty of competition from Google, OnePlus, Xiaomi soon

The Galaxy Watch 6 and the Galaxy Watch 6 Classic are arguably the best smartwatches Android smartphone users can buy right now. However, the competition will soon heat up in the Wear OS smartwatch segment, and Samsung will face heat from Google, OnePlus, and Xiaomi soon as they seem to be preparing new Wear OS […]

  • By Asif Iqbal Shaik
  • 2 hours ago
More info about Pixel 9’s Tensor G4 chip leaks, still based on Exynos design

More info about Pixel 9’s Tensor G4 chip leaks, still based on Exynos design

In July, a report from The Information claimed that Google's Tensor G4 processor will be based on an Exynos chip, just like previous-generation Tensor chips. The Tensor G4 is expected to power the Pixel 9 series that will be launched in 2024. Various rumors suggest that this Samsung chipset will be the Exynos 2400, which […]

  • By Abid Iqbal Shaik
  • 2 days ago
Galaxy Z Fold 5 shames the Google Pixel Fold in performance test

Galaxy Z Fold 5 shames the Google Pixel Fold in performance test

2023 has given us the most optimized flagship phones from Samsung ever since the Korean giant first started making Android devices. Thanks to the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip, the Galaxy S23, S23+, and S23 Ultra perform amazingly well, and we see something similar on the Galaxy Z Fold 5 and Galaxy Z Flip 5, […]

  • By Abhijeet Mishra
  • 4 days ago
Google Chrome to get iPhone-like smooth scrolling on Android 14 (One UI 6.0)

Google Chrome to get iPhone-like smooth scrolling on Android 14 (One UI 6.0)

Google Chrome is among the best web browsers on any platform, including Android. However, Android users might have noticed that scrolling web pages on Chrome doesn’t feel as smooth as scrolling web pages on Chrome for iOS. Well, in a new post on the Chromium Blog, Google has not only acknowledged the issue but also […]

  • By Abid Iqbal Shaik
  • 1 week ago
Galaxy Watch 6 to face heat from Google’s improved Pixel Watch 2

Galaxy Watch 6 to face heat from Google’s improved Pixel Watch 2

The Galaxy Watch 6 is the best smartwatch for Android users right now, but it will soon face heat from a new rival. Google's Pixel Watch 2 is scheduled to launch on October 4, 2023, alongside the Pixel 8 series. On Thursday, the company released a teaser video of the Pixel 8 and the Pixel 8 […]

  • By Abid Iqbal Shaik
  • 1 week ago
Google Chrome gets Material You design on Galaxy Book laptops

Google Chrome gets Material You design on Galaxy Book laptops

In its new blog post, Google announced that it will roll out a new version of the Chrome web browser for desktops (Windows/Mac/ChromeOS) in the coming weeks with a refreshed design and new security features. The latest announcement comes on the occasion of Chrome's 15th anniversary. Starting with the refreshed design, Google is updating Chrome […]

  • By Abid Iqbal Shaik
  • 1 week ago