In December, Google will begin deleting Gmail accounts that have not been used by their owners for a long time. The company will warn the holders of these accounts in advance and to prevent deletion they must follow a series of simple steps.
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Google warned about the new policy about six months ago and said it would not take active action until December at the earliest. The measure will not affect those who actively use the company’s services: Gmail, Documents, Calendar or Photos. Accounts that have not been used for at least two years or that have not been logged in will be deleted; At the same time, all data relating to the services will also be deleted. “Before we delete an account, we send multiple notices to both the account email address and the replacement email address (if one exists) several months in advance.”confirmed Google.
The company added that it chose this measure for security reasons: old and inactive accounts are more likely to fall victim to fraudsters. “If an account has not been used for a long period of time, it is more likely to be compromised. This is because forgotten or unattended accounts often have old or reused passwords that can be compromised.”explained Google.
By Google’s own estimates, abandoned accounts are at least 10 times less likely to have two-factor authentication than active accounts. This option makes it more difficult for an attacker to gain access to someone else’s account, and Google continually emphasizes this in its security recommendations.
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