Inactive account deletion

Inactive account deletion is where accounts get deleted after being unused, with the timeframe often being from 6 months to 5 years.

How it works

Often, companies delete or purge inactive accounts, citing various reasons such as cost issues, privacy/security factors and the desire for environmental sustainability.

Why it is a problem

• Inactive account deletion policies will adversely affect those who had good reasons to become inactive for a long time, such as hospitalization, prison incarceration, and being in totalitarian countries (i.e. Afghanistan) which are found to have implemented prolonged internet shutdowns, and other unforeseen factors such as the 2023 Hamas hostage crisis and being trapped in scam factories in Southeast Asia for a long period.

• In the case of email services, deletion of inactive accounts could result in major inconvenience for users who used the accounts as multiple factor authentications for important services such as banking.

• Many accounts and contents that were created or owned by now-deceased users are likely affected under such policies. This could mean that immense amounts of valuable or historical significant contents will be lost over time.

• Ultimately, in both the short and long term, such policies will cause serious erosion of historical integrity, which is especially paramount as in the era of deepfakes, lies and misinformation are just as likely as to arise from the absence of data than the presence of it.

Examples

• Discord has a deletion policy on inactive accounts in which accounts that are not used for 2 years or more may be scheduled to be deleted. Before the deletion of the inactive account, users may get an email or text message warning that their account is scheduled to be deleted.
• Google has deleted inactive accounts, often citing 'privacy reasons' as a reason for doing it. The rationale has been ridiculed with some comparing it to a hypothetical scenario where a bank should be burned down if it is not secure against robbers.
• Microsoft has a deletion policy on inactive accounts in which accounts that are not used for 2 years or more may be scheduled to be deleted. Any account that has been locked for more than two years will also be considered "inactive" and will be closed. Before the deletion of the inactive account, users may get an email or text message warning that their account is scheduled to be deleted.
• Protonmail announced a policy in 2022 which entails the deletion of inactive accounts, resulting in a major controversy where many users voice their concerns on the decision. In response to these concerns, Protonmail added an exemption where the inactive account policy would not apply to any accounts which had premium subscriptions at one point, although the exemption was revoked as of 2024. Protonmail accounts that were created before April 9, 2024 has a two year grace period before being subjected to the policy, as opposed to one year for newer accounts.