Is Google deleting Gmail accounts? What to know

Google is making good on a promise it made last year to delete inactive Gmail accounts, according to Forbes.

The big-tech company announced last May it would move forward with a mass deletion of unwanted and neglected facets of its programming by millions of people, and according to various outlets, Google is finally following through with its plan.

The push to eliminate inactive accounts came as an effort to create a safe and secure online experience for users, according to Google.

“... If an account hasn’t been used for an extended period of time, it is more likely to be compromised,” Google stated in a blog post.

“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 said.

Analysis shows abandoned accounts are 10 times more likely than active accounts to have two-step-verification set up — meaning, they are more vulnerable and once it is comprised, can be used for anything from identity theft to spam content, according to Google.

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A Forbes contributor reported they received an email from Google towards the end of January informing them an account they had not used in eight months would be deleted Sept. 20 — along with any Gmail, Google Photos and Google Docs content.

While the contributor said they are “more than happy for Google to do this,” with more than 300 billion emails flowing through the service daily, and nearly 2 billion users, other users may not share the same feeling.

There are several ways to prevent a Google account from being deactivated.

“The simplest way to keep a Google Account active is to sign-in at least once every 2 years,” Google said in a blog post.

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You can also prevent deletion by reading or sending an email, using the account’s Google Drive, watching a YouTube video, downloading an app on the Google Play Store, using Google Search and using “sign in with Google” to sign into a third-party app or service.

The company said in its initial announcement it would take a phased approach, starting with accounts that were created and never used again.

Before deleting an account, Google will send multiple notifications to both the account to be deleted and a recovery email, if one has been provided, in the months leading up to the deletion, Google stated.