Gerrard Kaonga
The Google accounts purge is upon us this week, here is how to make sure yours is safe.
As ominous as it sounds, Google employees haven’t simply gone rogue and decided to delete the email accounts of people across the world for no reason.
The tech giant announced earlier this year that it would be deleting accounts, but by this point it is likely you would have been notified as they started sending warnings to potentially affected users.
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The company has said it has sent multiple warning notifications to the accounts, as well as the backup emails associated with it.
Google won’t begin deleting accounts until December 1, at the end of the working week.
Google's Vice President of Product Management Ruth Kricheli first revealed the move in a post to Google's The Keyword website earlier this year.
The post reads: "We are updating our inactivity policy for Google Accounts to two years across our products.
"Starting later this year, if a Google Account has not been used or signed into for at least two years, we may delete the account and its contents - including content within Google Workspace (Gmail, Docs, Drive, Meet, Calendar) and Google Photos.
"The policy only applies to personal Google Accounts, and will not affect accounts for organizations like schools or businesses."
Explaining the reasoning behind the decision, the company highlighted its safety concerns regarding these accounts.
Google said its internal findings showed that older accounts are more likely to rely on recycled passwords and are less likely to have the most up to date security measures such as two-step verification.
"We want to protect your private information and prevent any unauthorized access to your account even if you're no longer using our services," Google wrote in its policy update Monday (November 27).
If you want to just doubly make sure that your account isn’t at risk, it is quick and easy to let Google know the account is active.
The 'simplest' being signing in 'at least once every two years', Google has said.
Or, you can read or send an email, use Google Drive, watch a YouTube video, download an app on the Google Play Store, use Google Search or sign in with Google to sign in to a third-party app, it adds.