Google will begin deleting millions of inactive Gmail and Drive accounts in December

L4sBot@lemmy.worldmod to Technology@lemmy.world – 146 points – Google will begin deleting millions of inactive Gmail and Drive accounts in December
techspot.com

Google will begin deleting millions of inactive Gmail and Drive accounts in December::undefined

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What happens if someone is in prison for a few years and can't access their email?

This is a good reminder to designate someone access to your accounts if you don't log in after a set amount of time (and now less than 2 years). If you die and someone is relying on you to pay the bills or whatnot, they will need access to that information.

You can also have it set up so that all your data is wiped.

If that’s the case. They probably wouldn’t know this. And if they eventually do?… they probably forgot their passwords.

What kind of prison doesn't have a computer that you can use every now and then?

Unless you have a smuggled device you aren’t getting access to gmail or any other email in prison. They have their own monitored communication systems that charge the inmate absurd amounts of money to use.

Do you think they have open internet? Gmail?

Looked it up, nope, some shitty pay per message bullsit system.

Well, they do have access in Finland, don't know about US

Generally speaking if the question boils down to "will this humanize anyone who isn't white upper class" the answer in the US is going to be "no that's not something we get" (but if you want a worse version of it we'll gladly sell it to you)

I see it's normal for me. If an account is inactive, the user perhaps has created another account or not using Google services anymore its money saving if we consider all personal data, ie 15 Gb per user, which are stored and maintained without reason.

Yeah, people went ape shit when they deleted YouTube accounts that weren't active for years. If you don't use something and aren't paying for it, what right do you have to be like "keep this around, even though I'm not using it and it costs you money"?

The downside is that Google won’t let you keep them active without jumping through hoops

Jumping through hoops?

Merely being logged in while using any of their websites or services any time in the last 3 years is enough to be considered an active account.

Watching a single youtube video or doing 1 Google search or reading a news article or accessing one of those precious files you have saved on their cloud server while logged in once every 3 years is hardly "jumping through hoops".

It won’t allow you to log back in without adding a phone number, even though it had been used during those three years

They’re just trying to get rid of anonymous accounts

So what's the point of such anonymous account? Waiting for 10 more years till policy is changed by some reason or you finally figure out a way how to get a number that's not tied to your name?

I am surprised they did not have such periodical purges in the past.

I mean, yes?

Making it harder for the average person to keep their identity separate from their Google account is the point…

They hadn’t done this in the past because they weren’t big enough to keep people on their service while degrading the service

I have a Google Voice number that I set up years ago and never used. They sent me an email saying "you haven't used this in a while, send one text or make one phone call to keep the number active".

The good news, as others said is that Google claims that Youtube channels wont be affected, however I aasume that over time they'l go that rought as more people start to stream in 8k or beyond. At some point they are going to have to delete older content as hosting it all isn't cheap. As big they are Google can only go so far for preservation when they keep boosting streaming video quality options.

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Good, fuck Google.

Yeah "fuck these guys for trying to save money by cleaning up stuff that hasn't been used in years!"/s

They're just doing what any other company would do.

If you could engage whatever functioning synapses you may possess, you might realize that this indicates that fewer people are using Google shit.

Uh, no, it means that it's been 20 years. People have made new accounts, moved organisations, gotten old, and just plain died.

1.8 billion people have a Gmail account. One in five people - not email users, people. "Millions" of accounts being deleted is not even a significant number.

Or people are just creating new accounts because they didn't like the name of the old one, you bozo.

What timing! I just deleted mine a week ago.