Alphabet (GOOGL), the parent company of Google, said it plans to delete accounts that have been inactive for at least two years.
Gmail and other accounts won’t be deleted until December 1 of this year, but Google said it will start sending warning notifications to impacted users this autumn.
The Silicon Valley-based company said the account deletions are intended to prevent security risks.
Alphabet said that older accounts are more likely to rely on recycled passwords and less likely to employ two-step-verification, making them more vulnerable to being hacked.
The first accounts that will be closed by Google will be those that were created and then never revisited by a user.
However, there are a few exceptions to the planned account closures.
For example, accounts with YouTube channels, remaining balances on gift cards, and accounts that are active on a platform like the Google Play store will not be closed, according to the company.
In 2020, Google said users would have their content wiped from services they’d stopped using, but the actual accounts would not be deleted. The new policy reverses that previous directive.
People wanting to save an account must log-in to it at least once every two years, said the company.
Google’s stock has gained 48% this year to trade at $131.53 U.S. per share.
