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An update to storage policies across your Google Account

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Re: An update to storage policies across your Google Account

#191

Post by bird_monster »

bagacrap wrote: post #77
bird_monster wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My statement is more about what I would _like_. Meaning, if Google is saying 'If you stop using google products, 2 years later we will full delete all of your data', I would spot using them today, right now. If there is grey area, I probably wouldn't/don't care, because what can I really do?

you can manually delete your account and all data, today, and Google will actually delete everything much sooner than two years from now. You can also set your account to auto delete n months after it becomes inactive.

Full delete? No copies or derivations? No anonymized versions? No subsidiaries?

Re: An update to storage policies across your Google Account

#192

Post by snazz »

josephg wrote: post #165
mehrdadn wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know but I would suggest (at least) logging into the account and doing something (uploading a file, sending an email, etc.) every year.

I would also suggest yearly doing a full backup of the account: https://takeout.google.com/settings/takeout Gmail backup archives are easy enough to load and read in other email programs, if google's storage ever becomes unreliable for you.

Google even lets you schedule them every two months, which works nicely for me.

Re: An update to storage policies across your Google Account

#193

Post by yashap »

IMO, all software should be like this. If you’re inactive for X time, they send an email letting you know your account, and all associated data, will be deleted if you don’t log back in. Probably sending a few such emails to be safe, but ensuring there’s some sort of automated inactive account cleanup.

So many people have defunct accounts, filled with personal data just waiting to be hacked. I’d be totally up for legislation to enforce “must automatically delete inactive accounts”, it’d reduce the efficacy of hacking shitty old services with bad security, who are probably storing your password in plain text or md5ed.

Re: An update to storage policies across your Google Account

#194

Post by bigiain »

ghaff wrote: post #61
vecinu wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Likewise, so many amazing memories lost. I wish I could look back to how naive and childish I was at the beginning of my time online.

To give a little perspective, I basically don't have any pre-Yahoo/Google email history. So maybe going back 20 years or so and not much in the way of digital archives before about 10 years before that. Essentially nothing from BBS days, email on various proprietary systems, etc. Some shards here and there from the 1980s and a few things that were digitized prior. I'm not sure if it's good or bad (probably a bit of b…

I have a collection of Eudora backups still kicking around (an old Mac OS9 and earlier vintage mail client). I don't have a _good_ way to read them any more (but at least I can grep them when I want to hunt an old email down... I've done that maybe twice in the last decade...)

Re: An update to storage policies across your Google Account

#196

Post by mcovalt »

actuator wrote: post #153
WalterBright wrote: post #147

It can be worse. I got a letter recently from a mutual fund saying I'd done nothing with my account for years, and if they didn't hear from me soon, they were going to hand it over to the government. (I'm a buy and hold, hold, hold, hold, investor.)

Wow, this seems like one of those name and shame cases. A login shouldn't be expected here.

There's a great Planet Money episode I listened to recently about this.

https://www.npr.org/2020/01/24/799345159/episode-967-escheat...

Re: An update to storage policies across your Google Account

#197

Post by ghaff »

bigiain wrote: post #194
ghaff wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To give a little perspective, I basically don't have any pre-Yahoo/Google email history. So maybe going back 20 years or so and not much in the way of digital archives before about 10 years before that. Essentially nothing from BBS days, email on various proprietary systems, etc. Some shards here and there from the 1980s and a few things that were digitized prior. I'm not sure if it's good or bad (probably a bit of b…

I have a collection of Eudora backups still kicking around (an old Mac OS9 and earlier vintage mail client). I don't have a _good_ way to read them any more (but at least I can grep them when I want to hunt an old email down... I've done that maybe twice in the last decade...)

For the 2000s, I do have an Outlook .pst somewhere I could probably find for work email. But I've probably pretty much exported any docs I care about from that era and likely wouldn't go to the trouble of digging anything else out.

Re: An update to storage policies across your Google Account

#198

Post by fletchowns »

metric10 wrote: post #171
geek_at wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

oh damn. I've created an account for my newborn son on my (free) google workspace domain and send him emails every few weeks with updates and photos. He'll receive the account when he's like 12. Will these be deleted too?

I would be surprised if they did this for Workspace accounts. Deleting data from a organization would be a disaster for Google. I.e. an account may be at a center of a lawsuit or subject to data retention laws. Indeed, this says no: https://support.google.com/a/answer/38173?hl=en

Hmmm is my G Suite account different from a Workspace account? I got this email a few weeks ago saying I hadn't logged in for awhile and they were going to delete my data: https://i.imgur.com/XAEXQWb.png

Re: An update to storage policies across your Google Account

#199

Post by fiberoptick »

actuator wrote: post #153
WalterBright wrote: post #147

It can be worse. I got a letter recently from a mutual fund saying I'd done nothing with my account for years, and if they didn't hear from me soon, they were going to hand it over to the government. (I'm a buy and hold, hold, hold, hold, investor.)

Wow, this seems like one of those name and shame cases. A login shouldn't be expected here.

There are state laws that require financial institutions to do this actually. Their hands are tied here. It's called "escheatment".

https://www.sec.gov/fast-answers/answersescheathtm.html

Re: An update to storage policies across your Google Account

#200

Post by edub »

actuator wrote: post #153
WalterBright wrote: post #147

It can be worse. I got a letter recently from a mutual fund saying I'd done nothing with my account for years, and if they didn't hear from me soon, they were going to hand it over to the government. (I'm a buy and hold, hold, hold, hold, investor.)

Wow, this seems like one of those name and shame cases. A login shouldn't be expected here.

if this is in the USA, it is most likely an "unclaimed property" law of their state. it isn't so much a name and shame, the company likely followed the state's policy and sent a notice to determine if the property should move to the state. but you can always file a claim for that and have the property returned. most states have a free website to search if you have any unclaimed property that the state is holding on your behalf, and then you get to fill out paperwork. i just searched for myself and I have about $80 from State Farm from 2001 and about $30 from Google from 2014. i know the state farm was a premium refund after i moved out of state and i guess they were not able to find me (although i was still with state farm in the other state, but i'm guessing in 2001 that wasn't easy for them to cross reference and possibly state farm is legally a different company in each state). no idea what the source of the Google money was, and also baffling why they couldn't find me as i've been an active customer since way before then, but also likely a scenario where one division doesn't talk to another and they still have to comply with the law.
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