Google announced that it will begin a campaign in December to delete "Gmail" accounts that have not been used for a long time. About six months ago, Google indicated that it would "begin a policy of deleting inactive Gmail accounts, and it would not implement this before January of this year," explaining that "the deletion will affect accounts that have not been used by their owners for at least two years. To avoid this, account owners will need to follow some simple steps."
These measures will not affect data associated with calendar or photo applications linked to the email accounts; rather, the "Gmail" account and the archived data associated with it will be deleted. Google noted that "before deleting any Gmail account, it will send multiple notifications to the user via email or to the backup email accounts that the user linked to their Google account, if available."
It also stated on its official sites that "these measures are for security reasons, as old and inactive accounts are likely to become targets for scammers or hackers," explaining that "forgotten or unmonitored accounts often contain old or reused passwords, which can be compromised."
