Beginning Friday, Google is moving ahead with its plan to delete accounts that have been inactive for at least two years.

The company announced the new policy back in May, saying it’s intended to prevent security risks: Internal findings show older accounts are more likely to rely on recycled passwords and less likely to employ up-to-date security measures like two-step-verification, making them far more vulnerable to issues like phishing, hacking and spam.

Google has been sending warnings to affected users since August, with multiple alerts sent to impacted accounts and user-provided backup emails.

In a phased approach, the first accounts to be cut are those that were created and then never revisited by the user, Google said in May.

“We want to protect your private information and prevent any unauthorized access to your account even if you’re no longer using our services,” Google wrote in an August policy update.

Google accounts include everything from Gmail to Docs to Drive to Photos, meaning all content sitting across an inactive user’s Google suite is at risk of erasure.

There are a few exceptions to the deletion move: Accounts with YouTube channels, those with remaining balances on gift cards, those used to purchase a digital item like a book or movie, and those that have published apps that are active on a platform like the Google Play store, the company said in August.

The decision to delete accounts goes a step further than an older policy. In 2020, Google said users would have their content wiped from services they’d stopped using, but the accounts themselves would not be deleted.

Deleting old accounts is a key step to ensure security, according to Oren Koren, CPO and Co-founder of cybersecurity firm Veriti, who says that old accounts are frequently viewed as low risk and, thus, can be an opening for malicious actors. Deleting old accounts might force hackers to create new accounts –- an action that now requires phone number verification. Additionally, the erasure gets rid of older data that may have been leaked in a data breach at some point.

CNN

Microsoft is currently investigating a problem that prevents the activation of Windows 10 and Windows 11, as The Verge reports. The issue affects computers on which users have upgraded from Windows 7 or Windows 8 to the newer Windows versions free of charge. If you’ve subsequently replaced essential hardware components (such as the motherboard) on these computers, Microsoft may now suddenly deactivate its Windows 10 or Windows 11 license.

Some affected users have not even replaced hardware components, but only carried out a BIOS update for their motherboard. Even this seems to disable activation on computers that have been updated from Windows 7 or Windows 8 to Windows 10 or 11.

And even if you still have the original activation key from Windows 7 or Windows 8, which is of course legal and valid, affected users can no longer reactivate their legally updated Windows 10 or Windows 11 computers.

Microsoft support is now aware of the problem. The affected users have not done anything illegal; they were simply collateral damage from Microsoft’s decision in September 2023 that valid license keys for Windows 7 or Windows 8 no longer can be upgraded to Windows 10 or Windows 11. You can only upgrade from Windows 10 to Windows 11 free of charge.

Microsoft is not yet offering a remedy, but a Windows product manager told The Verge they’re investigating the complaints. The only option currently available to affected users is to purchase Windows 11, even though their computers were running free, valid Windows 10 or 11 licenses until now.

PCWorld

Google Meet can now recognize when your physical hand is raised on camera during group video calls and alert the host. This means you don’t have to fiddle with clicking the “hand raise” button on the screen and accidentally send a clapping emoji to everyone in the call.

In a blog post published today, Google announced the feature is now rolling out to Google Workspace business and education users. It uses gesture detection to recognize when your hand is raised and alerts the meeting host that you want to speak. A hand-raised icon in your video window will also show to other participants. Essentially, it does the same thing as clicking the hand raise button, but in a more natural way.

For it to work, you’ll need to enable it in your Google Meet settings by going to More options > Reactions > Hand Raise Gesture. Google says your camera will need to be on and your hand needs to be visible to the camera, away from your face and body.

If you’re the active speaker, the gesture detection will not be triggered. However, it will be enabled again when you’re no longer talking, so you can ask another question.

The feature is rolling out now across Google Workspace for business and education.

The Verge

WhatsApp has continuously been improving its platform for the safety and security of its users. The messaging service has supported end-to-end encrypted chats and encrypted backups for a long time, but with increasing scams, they alone are not enough to protect your account. Considering this, the platform has added several new security features this year alone, like Chat Lock, Account Protect, and Device Verification. In early August, WhatsApp was spotted testing an email verification feature, which is now widely available to beta testers.

Your WhatsApp account is currently linked to your mobile number. This poses a security risk as if you can't access your number, you will be locked out of your WhatsApp account. This is why WhatsApp is working on linking your email address, thereby providing an alternative way to access your account.

If you are on the latest WhatsApp beta for Android, you should find the option to link your email address under WhatsApp Settings > Account > Email address. A six-digit verification code is sent to your email address as a part of the verification. The linking process clarifies that your email address will remain private and not viewable to anyone in your contact book. Additionally, you are free to use any email ID and are not limited to using the same account on which you back up your WhatsApp chats.

Once you link your email address, you can use it as an alternate way to receive the six-digit login code. This is currently delivered over SMS. However, there can be instances where you are not receiving the code due to network or server issues, so the alternate method is a welcome addition.

You still need a phone number to create a WhatsApp account. Linking your email address only provides an alternative login method. WhatsApp is working on username support for its platform, so linking your email account could come in handy then.

Android Police

Android users on WhatsApp won’t have a free ride anymore when it comes to backups. The change comes after five years of Android users’ backups not counting toward Google Drive storage limits at all — something that was never true for iOS users.

Google and WhatsApp both announced that, starting for WhatsApp beta users in December, chat history, including images and videos, will again chew away at Google Drive storage, whether you have the company’s free 15GB plan or you pay for storage.

WhatsApp said the change will come to all of its Android users in the first half of 2024, and it will notify users 30 days ahead of time. The notification will be in the form of a banner in Settings > Chat > Chat backup.

Users who don’t want to use their Google account for backups will have the option to use the WhatsApp Chat Transfer when they’re moving to a new Android device, which works wirelessly so long as both phones have Wi-Fi turned on. (No network connection is necessary — it’s a direct transfer.)

Google intimated that nothing about WhatsApp backups will change apart from the potential for storage limits affecting whether you can continue to cloud save your data. If you delete things in WhatsApp, it will delete them in your cloud backup, which can help you save space in Drive. And naturally, it points users to its Google One subscriptions if they want to upgrade to more storage. Google says it will offer “eligible users limited, one-time Google One promotions.”

Notably, this isn’t any different from how WhatsApp works on iOS except for the fact that Apple still only offers 5GB of cloud storage for nonpaying users.

The Verge

It has been a year since Apple enabled emergency SOS via satellite on all iPhone 14 units in the US. The feature lets users text emergency services for help when they don't have cell service. The company is offering two years of free access upon activating an iPhone 14 or iPhone 15.

Apple has not said how much it will charge for the feature when the free access period ends. However, users won't have to worry about that for a couple more years. Apple says existing iPhone 14 users (i.e. those who activated their phone before Wednesday in a country where the service is available) will get free access for an extra year.

"Emergency SOS via satellite has helped save lives around the world. From a man who was rescued after his car plummeted over a 400-foot cliff in Los Angeles to lost hikers found in the Apennine Mountains in Italy, we continue to hear stories of our customers being able to connect with emergency responders when they otherwise wouldn’t have been able to," Kaiann Drance, Apple’s vice president of worldwide iPhone product marketing, said. "We are so happy iPhone 14 and iPhone 15 users can take advantage of this groundbreaking service for two more years for free."

Engadget