Google to start deleting inactive accounts in December

Era of free storage is over, people need to pay for cloud service. At least with their eyeballs if credit card weren't used.

@sakurasuki

Welcome to the world where "free" never existed. Do you really thought that free services exist?

Also your comments about free storage is over has nothing to do with inactive accounts. This is not only specific to Google.

Just log in once a week or so.

Era of free storage is over, people need to pay for cloud service. At least with their eyeballs if credit card weren't used.

Cut the drama, just use your accounts..

So if you die or a member of your family dies, all pictures of you and your family will be deleted after certain time of inactivity? So your family will lose memories of you or you'll lose memories of your family members. Ahh, why use cloud storage in the first place?!

@Fourice, I really don't think the survivors will worry about the deceased's Google account. I'm only guessing, but I don't think the majority of those survivors would even know about those accounts. I use Google's G-mail for a lot of communications, but not the important ones for family, friends, editors, publishers, political friends, doctors and lawyers (for which I have a much more secure tool). And uploading photos is for narcissists.

Google already deleted one of my accounts - perhaps 5 yrs ago.

What does "sign in" mean? I never sign into google using a webpage. My phone that is connected to gmail and google apps probably connects to their infrastructure a few times weekly, using phone apps.

Google makes money off everyone. They are not a public service. They are a business - one of the wealthiest businesses in the world. They are selling access to our data, our preferences and our details for a price.

There's no reasonable way to opt out from google. That's the issue. They should need clear approval to steal our data.

Ahh, why use cloud storage in the first place?!

Exactly. Anything in the cloud can be gone at any time, especially if you aren't paying monthly for someone else to store your data on their storage, in their servers, in their building, at the end of their network. Plus, anything you upload to google gives google rights to use that data, so if you must upload anything, encrypt it in a way that google can't access.

Convenience, security, privacy are all different. Always remember that.

What is on my cloud storage is also on my desktops and backed up. I have data on the cloud that I can access when away from home especially files needed for my business. If the cloud collapses I don't lose my data on my computers. I have about 150GB of cloud storage which covers my needs.