Your Unused Gmail Account May Be Permanently Deleted Friday

Google will start to sweep away cobweb-collecting Gmail accounts this week. If you have an email address you haven’t touched in a couple of years, it might soon be gone.

The tech giant on Friday will start deleting personal Google accounts that have remained inactive for at least two years—and going forward, it will continue killing accounts that reach two years of disuse. Once deleted, the accounts and any items in them can’t be recovered. This could mean the end of personal emails, cherished documents and candid photos and videos tucked away in old Gmail accounts, Google Drives and other nooks in Google’s servers.