Elon Musk and the Twitter logo (Photo: Reuters)
Google said Tuesday it would delete accounts left unused for two years starting in December to prevent security threats. The company warned that users who haven't used their account or haven't logged in for at least two years could lose their account, including all content in Google Workspace, which includes Gmail, Docs, Drive, Meet and Calendar, as well as YouTube and Google Photos.
This differs from its 2020 statement, when it said it would remove content stored in inactive accounts, but would not delete the accounts themselves. She noted that the policy change only applies to personal accounts and not to accounts of organizations such as schools or businesses. Starting Tuesday, it will start sending notifications to the email addresses and recovery mail of the inactive accounts before deletion.
In doing so, Google joins Elon Musk, who tweeted last week that his Twitter would remove accounts that have been inactive for several years and archive them. He said the action was "important to release abandonment points."
The billionaire Twitter owner did not provide any details about when the process will begin or how Twitter users will be able to access archived accounts. Musk also noted that active users may see a decline in their followers as a result of the move.
And as always with Musk's tweets, the sea of confused, angry or disappointed comments was not long in coming. One user wrote: "I may be reading this wrong, but if you are really deleting inactive accounts and all their historical tweets, I would strongly urge you to reconsider. Letting people know how many active followers they have is good information, but deleting the output of inactive accounts would be terrible. I still see people who like ten-year-old tweets I've made, but threads are already often split with deleted or unavailable tweets. Don't make it worse! Some may scoff at any hint between Twitter and ancient libraries, but while the burning of Alexandria's library was a tragedy, scrolls and books thrown away just because no one wanted to keep them are worse. Keep it all!"
According to Twitter's policy, users should log into their account at least once every 30 days to avoid permanent removal due to prolonged inactivity, but in practice, it tends to do so only after six months of inactivity. Still, if you're like me and only manage a Twitter account for very specific purposes like connecting to different websites or automatically sharing LinkedIn posts, you'll need to start investing more or Twitter will kick you out of its exclusive club.
Why are they doing this?
Tech giants like Google and Twitter are making money. As much as we like to think they care about our interests, ultimately the bottom line counts. So why would they want to delete inactive user accounts? There really is no shortage of reasons:
1. Storing information is expensive! Inactive accounts take up valuable space on the company's 24/7 servers. By deleting these death weight bills, the tech giants not only free up storage space, but also save quite a bit of money. And let's face it, when you're as big as Google or Twitter, every penny counts.
2. Data, data and more data. Tech giants are constantly mining our data to improve their algorithms, target awareness, and better understand us as consumers. But the more inactive accounts they have, the more cluttered and cumbersome their data becomes. Deleting these accounts allows media giants to optimize their data and get a more accurate picture of their active users. In addition, it helps filter out the bots and fake accounts that wreak havoc on these platforms.
3. It's all about engagement. We all know that social media platforms thrive on engagement. The more we like, share, and comment, the more valuable the platform becomes. So, by deleting inactive accounts, tech giants are essentially cleaning up their backyards and improving engagement rates. It's a win-win situation. Users get a better experience, and tech giants get to pat themselves on the back for good work.
So how do you keep your accounts active?
If you haven't used your Google account in a while, but you've stored important files on it that you don't want to lose, there's a pretty simple solution. All you have to do is log in to Google and log in with your username and password. You'll need to do this at least once every two years, a perfectly reasonable requirement that can be easily met. In the case of Twitter, on the other hand, you'll need to log in every 30 days or six months, at the whims of the CEO, to avoid deleting your account, which is more challenging.
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