Starting in December, Google will begin deleting accounts that have not been used in at least two years as part of an effort to address security risks, the company said on Tuesday. The expunging of old accounts does not only mean losing access to Gmail. Work in Google Docs, Google Workspace, Google Photos and other Google products will also be wiped out, as will any videos that an affected user has uploaded to YouTube. Ruth Kricheli, the company’s vice president of product management, said in a statement announcing the new policy that the move was intended to protect users from security threats because accounts that had not been used for a while were more likely to be comprised. An internal analysis at Google found that abandoned accounts were much less likely than active accounts to have two-factor verification, an authentication method that helps to confirm a user’s identity, the company said.

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