People are unhappy with Google this week because of a change in its policy. While the company previously let people open and keep accounts forever, from December an account that “hasn’t been used or logged in for at least 2 years” can be deleted.
Google says it will send multiple notifications in the months leading up to account deletion to both the account email address and the recovery email to ensure the person has an opportunity to login and register your account. Once deleted, accounts will not be recycled and the email address will remain out of circulation.
It may seem like a drastic change, but it’s not unreasonable. It’s also not out of step with what Apple does. In fact, Apple will delete an inactive account much faster than Google and apparently with less warning. Here’s what Apple says in its iCloud terms:
In addition, Apple may terminate your Account upon 30 days’ notice via email to the address associated with your Account if (a) your Account has been inactive for one (1) year; or (b) there is a general outage of the Service or any part thereof.
Apple explains that terminated accounts “may lose all access to the Service and any part of it, including, but not limited to, your account, Apple ID, email account, and content. after a period of time, Apple will delete the information and data stored in or forming part of your account(s).Any individual components of the Service that you may have used subject to separate software license agreements will also be terminated. under these license agreements.
There are several reports on Apple’s forums about this threat, so if you have an old Apple ID, it’s best to log in every few months to make sure Apple doesn’t remove it.
