What you need to know about Google's announcement of bulk deletion of dormant Gmail accounts

 What you need to know about Google's announcement of bulk deletion of dormant Gmail accounts

After two years of inactivity, Google's new policy permits the deletion of dormant Gmail accounts and the material linked with them. Because inactive accounts are less likely to have two-factor authentication set up, they are more vulnerable to security lapses and unwanted access.

Google intends to start purging a large number of dormant Gmail accounts. Google's Gmail is a well-known and extensively used email service that offers advanced features including artificial intelligence (AI)-generated answers and a strong two-step authentication mechanism.

The internet giant disclosed a change in policy in May, going from just deleting Gmail account material to also deleting the accounts themselves. This change might potentially harm millions of inactive Gmail accounts. Recognize the effects of this cleanse and find out how to protect your account.

According to Google's most recent inactive policy, the company has the power to remove a Gmail account and any related information from Google Workspace if it is not used for more than two years. This includes Drive, Meet, Documents, YouTube, and Pictures. It is crucial to remember that this regulation only applies to individual accounts; accounts linked to businesses are not covered.

Google said in the release of this upgrade that dormant accounts had a ten-fold lower likelihood of having 2FA setup, based on internal study. Because of this, these accounts are more susceptible to possible security lapses and leaks. As a result, threat actors may target dormant or underutilized accounts, giving rise to the possibility of illegal access and its usage for harmful purposes.

"Forgotten or unattended identities often rely on old or re-used passwords that might have been compromised, fail to have two-factor authentication set up, and face fewer security checks by the user," said Ruth Kricheli, vice president of product management at Google. 

Google suggests checking in to your Gmail account at least once every two years to keep it from being dormant. You don't need to log in to Gmail expressly to maintain the status of your account; any action on a Google-related service will do.

Concurrently, Google is expanding the nations in which its Pixel phone's auto collision detection technology is available, adding India to the list. India and four other nations are listed as supported territories for this functionality by Google. In the US, Pixel phones first came equipped with the car collision detection capability in 2019.