Millions of Australians’ Gmail accounts will be deleted from December 2023, as the tech giant enforces a new security system.
On Friday, July 21, Google announced it would begin to enforce the new measure to delete Gmail accounts which have not been active for two years.
“We are updating the inactivity period for a Google account to two years across all our products and services,” Google said on Friday.
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While no accounts will be deleted before the December 2023 deadline, Google users will begin to receive warning emails if their account remains inactive.
“This change starts rolling out today and will apply to any Google account that’s been inactive, meaning it has not been signed into or used, within a two-year period,” Google said.
“An inactive account and any content in it will be eligible for deletion from December 1, 2023.”
The company is only focussed on deleting inactive accounts, and has released a handy step-by-step guide to ensure your account is safe.
Google has confirmed it will send multiple notifications to the Gmail account email address and recovery email before anything is deleted. But there are simple ways you can ensure your account is safe now.
How to stop your Gmail account being deleted
“If you have signed into your Google account or any of our services recently, your account is considered active and will not be deleted,” Google said.
It also listed other ways you can ensure your account is safe.
These include:
- Reading or sending an email
- Conducting a Google search
- Using Google Drive
- Watching a YouTube video
- Downloading an app at the Google Play Store
- Using Sign In with Google to log in to a third-party app
You should also ensure you regularly sign in to ensure your account is safe in the future.
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