Google will remove old, inactive Gmail accounts.

Do you have Gmail accounts that you haven't accessed or viewed in a long time? You must open them and get them operating since Google will remove dormant accounts.

Google will begin deleting accounts that have not been used in at least two years beginning in December as part of an attempt to address security threats, the firm announced on Tuesday.

The deletion of previous accounts does not merely imply the loss of Gmail access. Work in Google Docs, Google Workspace, Google Photos, and other Google products will be erased, as will any movies submitted to YouTube by an impacted user.

In a statement introducing the new policy, Ruth Kricheli, the company's vice president of product management, stated that the change was meant to safeguard customers from security concerns since accounts that had not been used in a while were more susceptible to be compromised.

According to an internal Google investigation, abandoned accounts were considerably less likely than active accounts to have two-factor verification, an authentication mechanism that helps to validate a user's identity.

“These accounts are often vulnerable,” Ms. Kricheli said, “and 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.”

Google has established a policy that would delete idle Google accounts until December. Users who have not used their account in at least two years can keep it alive by enrolling into Gmail or other Google services, or by downloading applications from the Google Play Store. Existing subscribers will not be erased.