Spartans,

This week’s tip is a quick heads up to help you manage your personal Google accounts (it doesn’t apply to your @sjsu.edu account).

Citing security concerns, Google recently updated its policy and will begin deleting accounts with long periods of inactivity. According to Google’s blog post on the policy update, “Starting later this year, if a Google Account has not been used or signed into for at least 2 years, we may delete the account and its contents – including content within Google Workspace (Gmail, Docs, Drive, Meet, Calendar) and Google Photos.”

If you have an older account you want to keep, all you need to do is sign in. We recommend updating your password and adding two-factor authentication.

If you don’t plan on keeping or maintaining your older account, consider downloading anything you may want to keep and then deleting the account. Google Takeout allows you to download or export your Google data to other platforms. After that, deleting your personal account is a fairly simple process.

Thank you Jeff Japp and Andrew Weiglein, both from our Project Management Office, for providing this tip. As always, the SJSU IT Service Desk is here to help by phone at (408) 924-1530 or online.

Thanks,
Bob Lim
Vice President for Information Technology
and CIO at San Jose State University