Google is sending emails to customers informing them that their accounts will be deleted starting in December if they don't log in after a period of two years or more. The policy change is receiving pushback on the internet, partly because the emails can go unnoticed. Google declared in May that this transformation was for safety purposes, however they are also trying to reduce their expenses.
In May, Google announced a plan to start clearing inactive accounts beginning in December, which gave a warning to those who have multiple logins. Recently, the company has been sending emails to remind people of what will happen to their dormant accounts. Now, critics are speaking up with Sabrina Meherally, CEO of the Canadian design firm Pause and Effect, voicing her opinion in a post on LinkedIn that the email she received lacked clarity in its subject line. She argued that a more effective approach would be a banner on Google.com. Multiple accounts are common among users, allowing them to store photos and documents separately and using different email addresses. This year, Google is mainly focused on their profitability, leading to this new form of aggression. The policy does not apply to schools or businesses using Google accounts, nor the ones who pay for services like extra storage. The company reported that the typical 15GB of storage should last three years or more for 80% of account holders.
Signing in to that extra account only needs to happen every two years. Google revealed in May that this action is being taken to protect users' personal accounts from being taken by attackers. In a post, Vice President Ruth Kricheli clarified that "forgotten or unattended accounts are at least 10x less likely to have 2-step-verification set up" than active accounts. This is the initial time Google has put this policy into effect; Microsoft also follows a similar policy with some exceptions, requiring users to sign in to their accounts at least once every two years.
Behind the scenes, Alphabet-which owns Google-is looking for cost-saving measures due to four consecutive quarters of revenue growth lower than 10%. Advertisers have become more cautious because of the current economic state, and YouTube has been facing competition from TikTok. To overcompensate for this, Alphabet has cut jobs, reduced hiring, and implemented new models for PC refresh cycles, shuttle schedules, cafeteria operations, and fitness classes.
A common theme among tech firms such as Amazon, Microsoft and Meta is to prioritize cost-cutting over expansion. A developer named Chris Beiser questioned Google's rationale for its account policy change with security as the stated reason: "Old accounts are more likely to be hacked, so we will delete the accounts? Like saying if a bank is not secure we should burn all its money before a bank robber can rob it," Beiser wrote on [X]. "This article feels really disingenuous."
Emmett Shear, the former CEO of Twitch, a service owned by Amazon, publicly questioned the initial announcement due to his worry that many old YouTube videos would be lost. Google responded by clarifying in a blog post that “we do not have plans to delete accounts with YouTube videos at this time.” Shear then took to [X] to thank the company for their quick amendment.
Stephanie Murphy, a parent, expressed her disappointment with the new policy via TikTok. Murphy said she had created a personal account for her daughter in which she sends emails as a journal, but never accesses the account. She went on to say that “everything was going fine until I received this email from Google today.”
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