Google will start deleting inactive accounts after two years
Enlarge (credit: Sean Gallup | Getty Images)
You may have thought a Google account was forever, but the company's latest blog post details a new policy of deleting inactive Google accounts. The new deadline is two years-if your account hasn't seen "activity" in that amount of time, Google is going to delete your data forever.
The company pitches this as a way to prevent spam. The blog post says that "abandoned accounts are at least 10x less likely than active accounts to have 2-step-verification set up," and once they get compromised, they become vectors for spam and identity theft. Deleting old accounts and freeing up storage is also probably a good way to cut costs, which has been a thing at Google lately.
Google's inactive account policy only applies to individual accounts. If you're a business account and paying a monthly fee, it's no shock that you can stay inactive for as long as the money arrives. Google says: "The simplest way to keep a Google Account active is to sign-in at least once every 2 years." That's all it takes to be active. Google also lists a few examples of "activity" if you're already signed in: