Google have recently given 3-weeks notice that millions of accounts will be deleted: Gmail, YouTube, Calendar, Authenticator, Drive, Meet, Photos, and more. Here is everything you need to know to protect your google identity.
Google have decided this to help stop identity theft and hacks, mainly because of commonly used passwords people have used to sign up will have likely been used for other sites, and possibly been leaked on the dark web.
Google’s internal analysis has shown that, “abandoned accounts are at least 10x less likely than active accounts to have 2-step verification set up…Meaning, 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.”
To save your account is a very simple process if your account is associated with organisations like schools and businesses your account is safe. If your account is for personal use, all you must do is read an email, or just watch a YouTube video while logged in.
It follows in Musk’s footsteps, as X (formerly Twitter) will start to recycle usernames if they are associated with accounts that haven’t been used, “for several years”.
What do you think about The Google Purge? Answer in the comments below.
By Ieuan
Carre’s Grammar School Newsroom
Thanks Ieuan – really helpful!! I think it’s good to make sure dormant accounts are ‘purged’ and that an organisation is taking a pro-active approach like this
Wow! I didn’t know about this Ieuan. I will make sure I take decisive action now.
Great article, I didn’t know about this and the google purge is bad. 🙁