From December 1, 2023, e-mails of Czechs will begin to be deleted en masse. You too?

Google is preparing a big purge of its storage, which will have a big impact on some users, as we wrote on Událosty247 before. Google has decided that it simply deletes inactive accounts. This applies to accounts that have not been used for two years. All content, including backups, will also be deleted.

Google deletes absolutely everything

Until now, there was no restriction on how often users had to log in to the account. People could easily lose them, the Mirror website pointed out. The change will take effect from 1 December 2023. Anyone, who does not use their Google account or does not log into it for at least two years, you will lose your account including all content. It’s not just Gmail, but also data stored on Google Drive. That is, for documents, photos, data in the calendar, or even for access to YouTube.

“People want the products and services they use online to be secure. That’s why we invested in technology and tools to protect our users from security threatssuch as spam, phishing scams and account theft,” Google product manager Ruth Kricheli explained on the site. According to Google, the threat is precisely inactive accounts, which are up to 10 times less likely to have two-step verification set up than active ones.

The company will send a notification

“This means that these accounts are often vulnerable. Once an account is compromised, it can be used for anything. From identity theft to a vector for unwanted or even malicious content such as spam“, Kricheliova is quoted by the Novinky website. As Reuters reminded, still in 2020, however, Google claimed that it would only delete content on inactive accounts and the accounts themselves will remain. The new policy applies only to personal accounts and does not affect organizations such as schools or businesses that also use Google Accounts.

Users who use their accounts regularly have nothing to worry about. Others affected by the deletion will receive a warning email from the company. “We will send notification to the account email address as well as to the secondary emailif provided,” the TN website quotes Google as saying. “Fortunately, I don’t have to deal with this, I do have two accounts, on Google and on Seznam, but I use both actively. Plus, of course, I have Google linked to my phone, so I’d be screwed without it,” said Mrs. Marta from Jaroměřice to Událostem247.