150
Google will begin deleting millions of inactive Gmail and Drive accounts in December (www.techspot.com)
submitted 2 years ago by [M, B] to c/technology@lemmy.world
26 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Google will begin deleting millions of inactive Gmail and Drive accounts in December::undefined

all 28 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] 27 points 2 years ago

Fortunately, they at least aren't deleting accounts with YouTube videos "at this time"

I still backed up the videos from a deceased friend's channel just in case- but I'm glad his content will still be there.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
    •
    [–] 24 points 2 years ago (3 children)

    What happens if someone is in prison for a few years and can't access their email?

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • hideshow 6 child comments
    •
  • [–] 9 points 2 years ago

    This is a good reminder to designate someone access to your accounts if you don't log in after a set amount of time (and now less than 2 years). If you die and someone is relying on you to pay the bills or whatnot, they will need access to that information.

    You can also have it set up so that all your data is wiped.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • [+] -11 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    What kind of prison doesn't have a computer that you can use every now and then?

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 4 child comments
    •
  • [–] 11 points 2 years ago* (1 child)

    Do you think they have open internet? Gmail?

    Looked it up, nope, some shitty pay per message bullsit system.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
    •
  • [–] 6 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Well, they do have access in Finland, don't know about US

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
    •
  • [–] 8 points 2 years ago*

    Generally speaking if the question boils down to "will this humanize anyone who isn't white upper class" the answer in the US is going to be "no that's not something we get" (but if you want a worse version of it we'll gladly sell it to you)

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
    • [–] 22 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    I see it's normal for me. If an account is inactive, the user perhaps has created another account or not using Google services anymore its money saving if we consider all personal data, ie 15 Gb per user, which are stored and maintained without reason.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • hideshow 4 child comments
    •
  • [–] 8 points 2 years ago

    Yeah, people went ape shit when they deleted YouTube accounts that weren't active for years. If you don't use something and aren't paying for it, what right do you have to be like "keep this around, even though I'm not using it and it costs you money"?

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 0 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    The downside is that Google won’t let you keep them active without jumping through hoops

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
    •
  • [–] 16 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    Jumping through hoops?

    Merely being logged in while using any of their websites or services any time in the last 3 years is enough to be considered an active account.

    Watching a single youtube video or doing 1 Google search or reading a news article or accessing one of those precious files you have saved on their cloud server while logged in once every 3 years is hardly "jumping through hoops".

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 4 child comments
    •
  • [–] 9 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    It won’t allow you to log back in without adding a phone number, even though it had been used during those three years

    They’re just trying to get rid of anonymous accounts

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
    •
  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago (1 child)

    So what's the point of such anonymous account? Waiting for 10 more years till policy is changed by some reason or you finally figure out a way how to get a number that's not tied to your name?

    I am surprised they did not have such periodical purges in the past.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
    •
  • [–] 4 points 2 years ago

    I mean, yes?

    Making it harder for the average person to keep their identity separate from their Google account is the point…

    They hadn’t done this in the past because they weren’t big enough to keep people on their service while degrading the service

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
    • [–] 8 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    The good news, as others said is that Google claims that Youtube channels wont be affected, however I aasume that over time they'l go that rought as more people start to stream in 8k or beyond. At some point they are going to have to delete older content as hosting it all isn't cheap. As big they are Google can only go so far for preservation when they keep boosting streaming video quality options.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • hideshow 2 child comments
    •
  • [–] 8 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Nah, newer content is significantly more costly than older content, specially as Google can simply decide to show ads regardless.

    Old YouTube content is what? 480p? 720p at most? They have already re-encoded their entire video library, it's super efficient. The real storage hogs are the modern 4K, 8K, HDR, 60 FPS video files.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
    •
  • [–] 0 points 2 years ago

    the point is.. are they going to rid of old content from an erra that less people remenber or current content that increasingly more people are likely to watch willingly to get ad revenue.

    in order to save on costs they are wanting to rid of older content ultamately one year of videos on Youtube can easily save gbs of storage and costs, right now they are starting with gmail but at some point I predict they'l adopt it to Youtube.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
    • [+] 3 points 2 years ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 child)
    [deleted]
  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • hideshow 2 child comments
    •
  • [–] 4 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Yeah "fuck these guys for trying to save money by cleaning up stuff that hasn't been used in years!"/s

    They're just doing what any other company would do.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
    •
  • [+] -10 points 2 years ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (2 children)
    [deleted]
  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 4 child comments
    •
  • [–] 10 points 2 years ago

    Uh, no, it means that it's been 20 years. People have made new accounts, moved organisations, gotten old, and just plain died.

    1.8 billion people have a Gmail account. One in five people - not email users, people. "Millions" of accounts being deleted is not even a significant number.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
    • [–] 2 points 2 years ago

    What timing! I just deleted mine a week ago.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
    •
    [–] 1 point 2 years ago

    Data harvested. Time to move on.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
    •