Do you hold a Gmail account?

If yes, then your Gmail account is at risk of getting deleted permanently.

Google has announced its plans of deleting lakhs of gmail accounts by December 2023.

For Gmail users, who have not accessed their accounts regularly, there is a chance that their accounts may get deleted.

Google aims is to deactivate all Gmail accounts that have remained inactive for at least two years.

This big development was announced by Google vice-president of product management Ruth Kricheli.

“Google is updating our inactivity policy for Google Accounts to 2 years across our products. Starting in December, 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,” Kricheli said.

“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,” Kricheli added.

“Our internal analysis shows abandoned accounts are at least 10x less likely than active accounts to have two-step verification set up. These accounts are often vulnerable, 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,” he further stated.

Users who have signed into their accounts for using Google Drive, watching a YouTube video or downloading an app on the Google Play Store and using Google Search, will also be considered active users.