I'm seeing a lot of criticism here in the comments, but what's the alternative for free accounts? If you're not using it, how long is Google (a for-profit company) supposed to hold onto your data for free? 100 years? 50 years? 15 years?
2 years seems pretty reasonable to me for something provided by a for-profit corporation. And as other reporting has noted, they're not deleting YouTube videos (makes sense, since while nobody else views your e-mails, public videos are public).
People here are saying, what about if you go to jail for more than 2 years, or you're in poor health for multi-year stretches? Then pay for a cheap Google One subscription, export your data with Takeout, or have a trusted friend log in once a year. These are lots of options.
If this were a government-provided service then it would be one thing. But it's not, it's a for-profit company that gives you free products in exchange for ads. There are lots of options for keeping an account active. I see no reason why we should expect a company to keep providing storage for dormant accounts beyond 2 years though.
2 years seems pretty reasonable to me for something provided by a for-profit corporation. And as other reporting has noted, they're not deleting YouTube videos (makes sense, since while nobody else views your e-mails, public videos are public).
People here are saying, what about if you go to jail for more than 2 years, or you're in poor health for multi-year stretches? Then pay for a cheap Google One subscription, export your data with Takeout, or have a trusted friend log in once a year. These are lots of options.
If this were a government-provided service then it would be one thing. But it's not, it's a for-profit company that gives you free products in exchange for ads. There are lots of options for keeping an account active. I see no reason why we should expect a company to keep providing storage for dormant accounts beyond 2 years though.