Google may delete your Gmail account if it's been inactive for too long

This new policy prompts an interesting question for me: how much do I value my mostly dormant extra Google accounts? I probably have 10-15 of them. Do I try to consolidate all of them into one or two extra accounts? Do I try to keep them all alive?

Some of these accounts are very old and date back to the first or second year of Gmail. Some of these have parallel Yahoo and Hotmail accounts.

What is the value of an online identity? Clearly some were set up to be disposable throwaway accounts. Others were created to silo Internet activities under a different identity, mostly to keep browser ads and mail spam directed elsewhere.

I use Google far less today than the late 2000s. I can't cut the strings completely because I still rely on Google Voice. Sometimes YouTube is handy though I don't treat it as a leisure site. Waze is still a helpful service and Google Maps simply works better in some countries than Apple Maps.

I'm guessing that Yahoo, AOL, and Microsoft/Outlook will soon adopt similar policies.

Something to noodle over the next few months.

I wonder if they will re-make the old accounts available for re-use.  I've created, but rarely or never used accounts on many services as they launched to protect my brand and identity.  I've also got accounts that I've used but essentially abandoned. However, those accounts would still potentially exist in contact lists of those I've communicated with.  If suddenly someone else were able to revive those addresses, it could be a path to identity theft.

brianjo said:

I wonder if they will re-make the old accounts available for re-use.  I've created, but rarely or never used accounts on many services as they launched to protect my brand and identity.  I've also got accounts that I've used but essentially abandoned. However, those accounts would still potentially exist in contact lists of those I've communicated with.  If suddenly someone else were able to revive those addresses, it could be a path to identity theft.

Very good question. I’ve actually been able to reconnect with people whose email addresses I’ve lost or forgotten by being spammed by virtue of my email address being in their contact list. My scenario is slightly different but it does point out the fact that you are always leaving digital footprints out there that may come back to haunt you in ways you never imagined. 

It should be very easy for Google to maintain a quarantined or dead email address list that can “never” be reused. 

dewme said:

brianjo said:

I wonder if they will re-make the old accounts available for re-use.  I've created, but rarely or never used accounts on many services as they launched to protect my brand and identity.  I've also got accounts that I've used but essentially abandoned. However, those accounts would still potentially exist in contact lists of those I've communicated with.  If suddenly someone else were able to revive those addresses, it could be a path to identity theft.

Very good question. I’ve actually been able to reconnect with people whose email addresses I’ve lost or forgotten by being spammed by virtue of my email address being in their contact list. My scenario is slightly different but it does point out the fact that you are always leaving digital footprints out there that may come back to haunt you in ways you never imagined. 

It should be very easy for Google to maintain a quarantined or dead email address list that can “never” be reused. 

Or they may do like the phone companies, only retiring the numbers for some time but eventually allowing a reissue. Certainly not the 90 days policy the cell providers use though. 

But they more likely will do the same as a bigger provider like Microsoft does, and those addresses and aliases are forever retired. 

Google delete any customer info that is very hard to believe….. :smile: