Google will delete accounts that have been inactive for at least two years | CNN Business

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If you haven’t signed in to your Google Account in a while, you better use it or lose it.

Google announced Tuesday that it will begin deleting accounts that have been inactive for at least two years, a move the company says is intended to prevent security risks.

The updated policy takes effect immediately, but Google said it won’t begin deleting accounts until December. The company plans to send multiple warning notifications to users and conduct a phased cleanup of inactive accounts.

Google said the first accounts on the chopping block will be those that were created and then never reviewed by the user. The policy will also affect only personal accounts, leaving organizations like schools and businesses untouched.

Google said its decision is based on internal findings that older accounts are more likely to rely on recycled passwords and less likely to use updated security measures like two-step verification, making them much more vulnerable to issues like phishing, piracy. and spam.

The decision to delete accounts goes one step further than a previous policy. In 2020, Google said users would delete their content from services they had stopped using, but the accounts themselves would not be deleted.

To save your account, all you have to do is sign in to sign in to your Google Account or any Google service and maybe read an email, watch a video, do a single search or any other activity.