Heads Up! Your Burner Google Account Risks Deletion

-
If you have a burner Google account that you created more than 2 years ago for one-off signups never to be revisited again, you may be up for a surprise coming this holiday period.

This is according to the recently updated Inactive Account Policies. Ruth Kricheli, The VP of Product Management at Google recently announced the changes on company's blog.

According to Ruth, untouched accounts are at risk of getting compromised despite best security practices. The reason being old or unprotected or common passwords being used for such accounts.Ruth also detailed the approach company is taking to remove inactive accounts. According to Ruth:
  • The policy has taken affect immediately but the account deletion would defer till December 2023
  • It would be a phased approach where accounts that were created but never used would be cleaned up first
  • For each affected account, the company would try to communicate via the account's email and alternate email addresses before the actual deletion would happen

Ruth also outlined the process of keeping the account active that includes:

  • Sending / Reading email
  • Accessing YouTube via the account
  • Downloading Apps on Google Play Store
  • Google Search
  • Sign-in on Third Party sites/apps via Google Account
     

We understand where Google is coming from. If there are Google Accounts that were created but never ever accessed, there is also a chance a bot created them. Or for whatever purposes they were created, the account creator never had to re-use them. The policy is to target accounts dormant for two years or more. Two years is a reasonably long time period for an account to go untouched. 

If you have one of such accounts, better access it now to avoid holiday surprises. 


Update:

According to 9to5Google, the deleted account won't be available to reuse much similar to how deleted blogger site names are not available for reuse. 

Update 2:

If an account has at least one YouTube video uploaded, it would not be deleted.


Source:

Google Blog - Safety And Security

Comments

Post a Comment

Trending Now

Meet Microsoft Graveyard - A Monument of Products Killed By Microsoft

-
Image
Much to my envy, a site I had long hoped to set up was established this week. I often wondered why there was no "Killed by Microsoft" counterpart to Google's "Killed by Google," and the wait is finally over. Launched by Victor Frye, the Microsoft Graveyard is an open-source compilation showcasing discontinued Microsoft-made software and hardware. It's worth noting that the site has no affiliations with Microsoft itself. According to the developer, the website is a "passion project" born out of a fondness for many of these products that met an untimely end. Among them are some of the recent casualties including WordPad , Visual Studio for Mac , Cortana , Windows Phone alongside some late distant memories like ASP.Net Web Matrix, Microsoft Bob, Windows Vista and Zune. The Microsoft Graveyard encourages contributions as it's an open-source project hosted on GitHub . You are welcome to add missing items, correct typos, suggest improveme
Read more

China's Impersonation And Misinformation Crackdown: 67K Accounts, 1.4M Posts Vanished

-
Image
The Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) recently completed a two-month probe targeting social media activities, resulting in the deletion of over 1.4M posts and 67K accounts. The investigation focused on issues such as impersonation of government officials and the spread of misinformation. "Self-media" accounts, which are independent news and information sources not owned by the state, were particularly scrutinized, with popular apps like WeChat , Douyin , and Weibo being closely monitored. As part of the crackdown, the CAC specifically targeted fake military accounts (around 13K identified) and accounts impersonating public institutions (approximately 25K). Punishments were also meted out to 187K accounts for impersonating news media businesses and 430K accounts for providing professional advice or educational services without the necessary qualifications. This extensive social media cleanup campaign by the CAC follows similar actions in the past. Accoding to CAC ,
Read more

Gamers Lawsuit Accused Microsoft of Conspiring to Eliminate Sony's PlayStation

-
Image
Microsoft finds itself entangled in multiple legal battles, proving that its fight knows no rest. While the tech giant prepares to challenge the block on its proposed acquisition of Activision-Blizzard in both the UK and the United States, it also faces a smaller yet significant side battle—a lawsuit brought forth by a group of gamers. The lawyers representing the gamers recently unveiled an alleged internal email exchange between Matt Booty, the Head of Microsoft Xbox Game Studios, and Tim Stuart, Microsoft's CFO for Xbox. Although the exact contents of the email remain redacted, it is said to contain "uncontroverted evidence" that Microsoft aimed to eliminate its main competitor, Sony PlayStation, from the market. Microsoft has countered the claims by stating that the email was sent in 2019 and is unrelated to the acquisition of Activision-Blizzard in early 2022. However, when approached by Axios , the company refused to disclose the c
Read more