Google has been warning Gmail users for months about some significant changes to its terms and now this dramatic deadline is just a few weeks away. The US technology giant is trying to clean up the millions of accounts that sit on its servers and its new rules could leave some losing all access to their emails and data.
The update, which was announced earlier this year, basically allows Google to delete accounts that aren’t being used.
Once someone stops regularly logging in, it could put things at risk of being blocked in the future.
“If a Google Account has not been used or signed into for at least 2 years, we may delete the account and its contents – including content within Google Workspace (Gmail, Docs, Drive, Meet, Calendar) and Google Photos,” Google confirmed in a post on its blog.
This major shift in Google’s usage policy kicks in next month so, if you haven’t checked your emails in a while, now is a good time to log in.
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As long as you use your Gmail, Docs, Calendar and Photos accounts on a regular basis you won’t need to worry. It’s also worth noting that Google is emailing all of those affected so if you’ve not received a message from the tech firm your account will be safe.
“Before deleting an account, we will send multiple notifications over the months leading up to deletion, to both the account email address and the recovery email (if one has been provided),” Google confirmed.
So why is Google making this major change to its terms?
The technology firm says that ageing and inactive accounts are far more likely to be targeted by cyber crooks which makes things. That makes things a lot more unsafe for all users across the web.
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Once an account is compromised, it can be used for anything from identity theft to a vector for unwanted or even malicious content, like spam.
“If an account hasn’t been used for an extended period of time, it is more likely to be compromised,” Google added. “This is because forgotten or unattended accounts often rely on old or re-used passwords that may have been compromised, haven’t had two-factor authentication set up, and receive fewer security checks by the user.”
Google says that its own analysis has revealed unattended accounts are also at least 10x less likely than active accounts to have 2-step verification set up. This technology makes it harder for hackers as a message has to be sent to a secondary device to log into an account.
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