Your Google account has hidden ‘death’ page that you need to check as soon as possible – don’t leave it too late
GOOGLE has a clever system to determine what happens to your digital goods when you die.
It’s an often-overlooked page that you’ve probably never seen – but it’s very important.
The feature is called the Inactive Account Manager.
And it’s designed to control the destiny of your Google account if you’re suddenly inactive for a long time – in some cases, this means death.
Google said that it looks at “several signals” to work out if you’re still using your Google account.
This includes things like your last sign-ins, recent activity, Gmail usage and Android check-ins.
How does Google Inactive Account Manager work?
If Google determines that you’re inactive for a specified amount of time, it’ll alert your trusted contacts.
These are people that you’ve chosen ahead of time – choose only very trusted people in your life.
They won’t be alerted when you initially choose them.
But once your account is deemed inactive, they’ll receive an email with a subject line and message that you’ve already prepared.
A footer will be added to the email explaining that Google was instructed to send an email on your behalf.
And it will share any data with the trusted contact that you’ve selected.
You set this up ahead of time.
For instance, you may choose to hand over data from your Gmail, Google Drive and YouTube.
They will be able to download that data using a link.
You’ll need to provide a phone number for each trusted contact.
This will be used to verify their identity before they’re allowed to download your data.
You don’t have to choose to share any data with anyone, however.
Instead, Google can simply send a message when your account has been inactive for a while – and nothing more.
Inactive Account manager can also delete your account.
Google explained: “Deleting your Google Account will affect all products associated with that account (e.g., Blogger, AdSense, Gmail), and affect each product differently.
“You can review the data associated with your account on the Google Dashboard.
“If you use Gmail with your account, you’ll no longer be able to access that email. You’ll also be unable to reuse your Gmail username.”