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Updating our inactive account policies

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Re: Updating our inactive account policies

#31

Post by amf12 »

bombcar wrote: post #28
sphars wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In this article[0], it says that YouTube accounts with videos won't be deleted: > At the moment, Google is not planning to delete accounts with YouTube videos. (That would be tricky as some old abandoned clips might have historical relevance.) [0]: https://9to5google.com/2023/05/16/google-account-delete/

Which is contradicted by this blog, so who knows what they'll do (answer: the worst possible option at the worst possible time). Archive everything .

> if a Google Account has not been used or signed into for at least 2 years, we *may* delete the account and its contents

This is what this policy announcement says.

Re: Updating our inactive account policies

#32

Post by Eumenes »

This seems pretty reasonable. Google is a for-profit company, hosting your shit, for free, indefinitely, isn't their prerogative. They should offer some one-time fee or small reoccurring charge to keep your stuff in hibernation mode or something. Like literally $1.

Re: Updating our inactive account policies

#33

Post by qingcharles »

I wish I could get into my old Google account. I unexpectedly went to jail for 10 years and when I got out I couldn't log into my account because my 2FA (phone) was gone. I had 10 years of email in there. Would love to find another way to authenticate myself.

Looks now like it is all going to be hosed anyway.

Re: Updating our inactive account policies

#34

Post by skissane »

bombcar wrote: post #29
rurp wrote: post #18

This is disappointing, albiet not that surprising. It's a good reminder to not rely on Google for long term storage of anything you care about. It's not uncommon for inidivduals in poor health to go through multi-year stretches of very limited activity, especially for elderly individuals. In the future, people in that situation, or their relatives, might be surprised to find a Google account they thought was secure n…

It's not just poor health, there's an entire subclass of Americans who don't have internet access for 2 years+ - most anyone in the prison system. Now as a secret unmentionable for any 2+ year sentence: lose access to all your google shit .

They can give their password to a trusted friend/family member, and have them log in once every few months to keep the account active. Yes, it’s a pain, what if they forget, etc, but it means a 2+ year sentence does not necessarily entail losing one’s account.

Could someone start a subscription paid service for the incarcerated - “we keep your accounts alive while you are inside”? More broadly, could provide other “manage your affairs for you while you are incarcerated” services. I suppose many incarcerated people would have no income or assets to pay for it, but some would, or their family might be willing to pay for it.

Re: Updating our inactive account policies

#36

Post by alpaca128 »

waboremo wrote: post #22
chrisbolt wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> At the moment, Google is not planning to delete accounts with YouTube videos. https://9to5google.com/2023/05/16/google-account-delete/

Only at the moment, YouTube was included as part of the content they're going to delete from accounts as per the VP announcement. People should use this as a warning to save content they want to keep from YouTube that's particularly old and the account seems abandoned. Just in case Google isn't so lenient with the generous solution; unlinking YouTube accounts but keeping the video up.

I already download any video I find valuable with yt-dlp. So many videos just randomly disappear or are difficult to find again because Google keeps mixing more and more irrelevant suggestions and shorts into search results.

Disk space is cheap, and it can be nice to scroll through the folder now and then and rediscover some great content.

Re: Updating our inactive account policies

#37

Post by echelon »

skissane wrote: post #34
bombcar wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not just poor health, there's an entire subclass of Americans who don't have internet access for 2 years+ - most anyone in the prison system. Now as a secret unmentionable for any 2+ year sentence: lose access to all your google shit .

They can give their password to a trusted friend/family member, and have them log in once every few months to keep the account active. Yes, it’s a pain, what if they forget, etc, but it means a 2+ year sentence does not necessarily entail losing one’s account. Could someone start a subscription paid service for the incarcerated - “we keep your accounts alive while you are inside”? More broadly, could provide other “m…

Seems like an opportunity (sadly) for a service to manage these things.

Google isn't the only provider that would need regular logins. Twitter, Twitch, etc. have account inactivity policies.

Re: Updating our inactive account policies

#38

Post by bombcar »

skissane wrote: post #34
bombcar wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not just poor health, there's an entire subclass of Americans who don't have internet access for 2 years+ - most anyone in the prison system. Now as a secret unmentionable for any 2+ year sentence: lose access to all your google shit .

They can give their password to a trusted friend/family member, and have them log in once every few months to keep the account active. Yes, it’s a pain, what if they forget, etc, but it means a 2+ year sentence does not necessarily entail losing one’s account. Could someone start a subscription paid service for the incarcerated - “we keep your accounts alive while you are inside”? More broadly, could provide other “m…

Hell, the local police will probably happily login to your email whilst you're in jail, just sign away your 4th and 5th while you're at it ...

It's one more thing you have to know to think about - though if the system counts automated logins as logins, then maybe fetchmail has a purpose again.

Re: Updating our inactive account policies

#39

Post by TonyTrapp »

withinboredom wrote: post #6

This ... is not what is going on. When I worked at $bigcorp serving billions in traffic, what happened is that botnets would create accounts and leave them dormant for weeks/months/years (thousands of them), then start doing their bot thing. Account age says a lot when it comes to trust (usually) and spam detection. That's more than likely what they're seeing, not 'compromised' accounts. All this does is tell the spa…

> This ... is not what is going on.

I wouldn't discredit it so quickly. I have seen lots of old accounts being taken over on eBay lately for scam auctions. It seems to become more and more common. So this could very well happen with Google accounts as well. It makes them more credible for whatever scammy thing they are being used for.

Re: Updating our inactive account policies

#40

Post by tuukkah »

skissane wrote: post #34
bombcar wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not just poor health, there's an entire subclass of Americans who don't have internet access for 2 years+ - most anyone in the prison system. Now as a secret unmentionable for any 2+ year sentence: lose access to all your google shit .

They can give their password to a trusted friend/family member, and have them log in once every few months to keep the account active. Yes, it’s a pain, what if they forget, etc, but it means a 2+ year sentence does not necessarily entail losing one’s account. Could someone start a subscription paid service for the incarcerated - “we keep your accounts alive while you are inside”? More broadly, could provide other “m…

Yes, let's profit from their misery and invest some of the proceeds to lobby for policies that secure and further grow this customer segment. /s
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