First, it is important to note that while Google is deleting PERSONAL inactive accounts, accounts created through your work, school, Hybridge, or other organizations will not be automatically deleted. If you have a personal Google account you should pay attention even if you don’t use it for Gmail because Google accounts can give access to Google’s other services like Drive, photos, Calendar, bookmarks, YouTube, and more. Therefore content – data, videos, emails - tied to that account are at risk if that account is deleted.
Second, Google further states that the company "reserves the right to delete data in a product if you are inactive in that product for at least two years. This is determined based on each product's inactivity policies." What that means is that you should not only ensure your Google account remains active but that you log in to the particular product that is near and dear to your heart. For example, it is not enough to make sure you log into your Google account, you should log in to Google Photos to ensure your photos are not deleted.
To ensure your account and associated data is not deleted, sign into your Google account as soon as possible if you are not sure you accessed it recently. This action changes the status of your account from inactive to active and removes it from the purge list.
Google has been sending notifications in the past months to the account email address and the recovery email address alerting to the impending deletion. Do not ignore these emails.
Additionally, if during this process you realize that there is in fact content that you want to ensure is preserved, Hybridge always recommends saving data in two if not three different places. Backing up previous data is something we do continuously for our clients, but you can do for your personal data using Google Take Out. This process will allow you to download and export your data.
If you have any concerns regarding your corporate/enterprise account, please contact us at support at Hybridge.com. At this time, we have no reason to believe corporate accounts are at risk, but we are happy to help you login into your account and ensure it is active under Google policies.
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