Google, like Facebook, has a protocol for action in the event of a user’s death, and users in Europe can choose what will happen to the account and all its information. In this way, it is possible to decide in life what will happen to the digital footprint that each person leaves, such as their emails, Google Photos images or Google Drive files.
The Google tool that handles this is the Inactive Accounts Manager, and it has options like share certain parts of the account with certain people, or directly delete the account without notifying anyone. It’s everyone’s choice, even though Google has announced that it will delete all accounts that have not had any activity for two years.
Google cannot provide passwords or other login information to relatives of the deceased, even if You can leave a message with this data manually.
inactive account
Google’s Inactive Account Manager manages what will happen to a deceased user’s account. The first thing to set is the time after which Google considers an account inactive. It can be 3, 6, 12 or 18 months.
- Go to the inactive accounts manager.
When one month remains at the end of this period, the company an attempt will be made to contact the user by email or SMS to let it know. When you do something like watch a YouTube video, send an email, or log in, you will no longer be considered inactive.
Choose what information to share after death
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If this does not happen, Google offers the possibility to notify up to 10 people, who will be informed of the status of the account. Account information may also be shared with these individuals. This one is chosen from the Google platforms.
That is, you can give other people access to information from Google Maps, YouTube, Google Drive, Gmail, and even Google Contacts, which now needs to be synced to the cloud so it won’t be deleted. . It’s optionalso you can also notify these users, but not grant them any permissions.
auto reply
Once the account is considered inactive, you can write a reply that will be sent automatically the one who sends an e-mail to the account. This message is at the choice of each, it is not obligatory. If sent, in this message, Google will inform you that you no longer have access to this account.
Gmail will send an automatic response when the account is considered inactive
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It is possible to write both the subject and the body of the e-mail message. Keep in mind that being an automatic reply, it will be sent to everyone. That’s to say, They can receive this message whether they are close or strangers.
It is possible to send this message only to people registered as contacts in the account. The message can have an extension of 5120 charactersand does not support the ability to attach files.
Account deletion
In the last part of this process, Google offers the possibility of completely delete the account upon death. It is not something immediate, but the company grants 3 months of margin since the inactive account was declared. As long as the delete option is chosen, of course.
This time is intended, if they wish, for relatives and people who had access to the account after the death. download all information shared with them.
If the option is not checked, in theory, the account will not be deleted. However, considering that Google announced that after 2 years of inactivity they would delete any account, It looks like it will be deleted anyway.
This account closure is final and will take place, even if no contact has been designated to notify it. Despite this, with the company’s new policy regarding inactive accounts, these will be deleted after 2 years from the last use of the account.
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