Google will delete contacts, photos, files and more data of thousands of users, check if you are in the list

Google will delete contacts, photos, files and other data along with your account this week if it has been inactive for two years. To whom this may come as a surprise, the tech giant announced the policy to purge the content in inactive accounts within Google Workspace in May. The data will be deleted from Gmail, Docs, Drive, Meet and Calendar.

Starting December 1, the company will begin deleting such accounts. “Google products reserve the right to delete your data when your account has not been used within that product for a 2-year period,” the company said in its Inactive Google Account Policy.

“December 1, 2023, is the earliest a Google Account will be deleted due to this policy,” it added. This policy only applies to users’ personal Google Account.

The company said, “this policy doesn’t apply to any Google Account that was set up for you through your work, school, or other organisation”. Google when announced the policy, explained that if an account hasn’t been used for an extended period of time, it is more likely to be compromised.

“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,” it added. In August, the tech giant sent emails to its billions of users, saying the company updating the inactivity period for a Google Account to two years across all its products and services.