Many individuals might have old Google accounts from years ago that haven’t been used in a long time, whether they were simply replaced by newer accounts or simply forgotten about. These accounts can actually be a security challenge and can create more problems than they are worth, and Google is now realizing this. The service is planning to shut down old Google accounts that have been dormant for the last two years.
This deletion is scheduled to start in December of 2023, and it’s possible that even now Google has begun to take action with some older accounts that haven’t been active in a while. This could impact any users of Gmail, Google Drive, YouTube, Google Calendar, Google Docs, Google Meet, and Google Photos. YouTube accounts that have videos uploaded to them are an exception and will remain open with their subscriptions. Keep in mind, too, that this change applies to personal Google profiles, not those tied to any Workspace accounts associated with businesses or educational institutions.
Saving your old Google account from deletion is pretty easy, all things considered. All you have to do is log into it. This will show activity associated with your account and keep it from being deleted. Other activities also count, so it’s also easy to keep your account active through things like performing Google searches while signed in, opening an email, watching a YouTube video, and so on.
But what exactly is prompting this change by Google? Turns out, it’s one that makes a lot of sense, and it all boils down to security. When you have several very old accounts that aren’t getting used much, you can assume that the credentials also have not been updated and are probably not secure. This means that security breaches are much more likely, and when accounts aren’t being actively used, nobody is going to think twice about their old accounts getting hijacked. The accounts are much less likely to have multi-factor authentication enabled, as well.
Before the deletion commences, we recommend logging into your old Google accounts, if you have any, to ensure that you don’t have anything important saved in them.
Of course, if you do plan to continue using your old Gmail accounts, then we recommend setting up multi-factor authentication on them with complex, unique passwords that include letters, numbers, and symbols. A password manager can be used if you have trouble remembering long or complicated passwords, too.
Your multi-factor authentication tool should also include at least two factors of the following: something you own (a smartphone), something you know (a password or passphrase), and something you are (a biometric of some sort). MFA can be invaluable for account security, and we recommend always using it if you have the chance to do so.
Business Solutions & Software Group can help you shore up account security and make proactive efforts to keep your business safe. To learn more, call us at (954) 575-3992.
