Google to delete all YouTube videos, Google docs, photos, and other content from any Google accounts inactive for >2 years

[CitizenVectron]

Updating our inactive account policies

WWW.BLOG.GOOGLE

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Starting later this year, we are updating our inactivity policy for Google Accounts to 2 years across our products.

 

Massive amount of the internet about to be wiped out, especially YouTube. 

[Uaarkson]

This really sucks. So if I die, my online legacy just gets deleted? I hope there’s some serious backlash against this. Imagine deleting Huckleberry Finn two years after Mark Twain stopped publishing. A lot of priceless art on YouTube comes from people who have since disappeared.

[SuperSpreader]

haha good 

[marioandsonic]

It's amazing how digital content doesn't age and is perfect for the sake of preservation, and yet paradoxically said content is at its most vulnerable, as so many companies are perfectly willing to burn their libraries to the ground.

[Kal-El814]

Between this and Musk nuking old twitter accounts, it sure is a shitty time for media preservation as well as to have dead friends and loved ones who used these platforms.

[Guest]

Just now, Kal-El814 said:

Between this and Musk nuking old twitter accounts, it sure is a shitty time for media preservation as well as to have dead friends and loved ones who used these platforms.

This has been the danger of the digital transition for the entire time. My cousin is a phd in archiving, and has a substantial budget at Cal Poly for helping to develop new systems of storing and preserving digital content and the answer always comes back to putting it on analog mediums.

 

The number one use of 35mm film prints in the modern age is to stick in film vaults at the studios because they’ve already lost the masters for some digital films of the early 00s.

 

Leaving this stuff to private companies to protect human knowledge was not a great idea. They have little incentive to keep things around that aren’t producing profit.

[Fizzzzle]

It kind of makes sense for them. They can't just keep preserving everything until the entire planet is covered in data centers. Obviously that's an extreme, but shit has to just get deleted sometimes.

 

Even if we left it to some kind of government institution to protect certain digital media, it would have to be curated. They wouldn't just preserve everything.

[Ricofoley]

Seems like there should be an exemption for YouTube videos above a certain threshold of views.

[Fizzzzle]

11 minutes ago, Ricofoley said:

Seems like there should be an exemption for YouTube videos above a certain threshold of views.

I'm sure they won't delete videos that are still getting views and are monetized. That would be dumb.

[unogueen]

And the Internet Archive is under attack. Bad times.

[GeneticBlueprint]

[DarkStar189]

Obviously I see why this is a bad thing.  But now picture that feeling when you go through your PC and delete a bunch of old useless shit.  All that extra free space.   Google is about to do that on an epic scale. 

[mclumber1]

You all should feel good about this.  All of your cringe posts as teenagers will vanish!

[Keyser_Soze]

RIP that movie trailer I uploaded on a burner account that I don't use.

[Brian]

D1P deleted all the history. Google needs to step its game up. 

[Fizzzzle]

14 minutes ago, mclumber1 said:

You all should feel good about this.  All of your cringe posts as teenagers will vanish!

I was smart enough to use throwaway anonymous accounts for all of my shitposting.

[Derek]

8 hours ago, Brian said:

D1P deleted all the history. Google needs to step its game up. 

Google should've just nuked what it wanted and then said "Shit, our servers just fucked up". It's easier to ask for forgiveness than beg for permission. Although, I don't think they're asking for permission. 

 

I understand both sides of this. Even if they just delete videos with less than 100 views from uploaders inactive for 2 years, they would free up a huge amount of space. Also, they could get rid of all the ice bucket challenge videos. 

[SaysWho?]

10 hours ago, Brian said:

D1P deleted all the history. Google needs to step its game up. 

 

God, I still hate that happened. Seeing all convos and threads on boards is a cool time capsule as to what people were thinking/arguing, how people reacted to big events, and there were a lot of fun threads that are lost to the void of the internet now.

 

I remember I had finally watched Star Trek: TNG front to back and posted about it on the entertainment board. It was a fun thread that came at a positive time in my life, and it was cool seeing people relive the series vicariously through me, sometimes making fun of my episode preferences. FFS, markot was well-behaved.  

 

It's gone, though, since it was 2017.  

[Comet]

1 minute ago, SaysWho? said:

 

God, I still hate that happened. Seeing all convos and threads on boards is a cool time capsule as to what people were thinking/arguing, how people reacted to big events, and there were a lot of fun threads that are lost to the void of the internet now.

 

I remember I had finally watched Star Trek: TNG front to back and posted about it on the entertainment board. It was a fun thread that came at a positive time in my life, and it was cool seeing people relive the series vicariously through me, sometimes making fun of my episode preferences. FFS, markot was well-behaved.  

 

It's gone, though, since it was 2017.  

I don't know, now that we don't have written proof of the past it's more mystical. What really is truth? What really happened? No one will ever know!

[Kal-El814]

1 hour ago, Comet said:

I don't know, now that we don't have written proof of the past it's more mystical. What really is truth? What really happened? No one will ever know!

 

It’s interesting. I’ve said this in other places, but it’s fascinating / sad to see modern, queer puriteens get really up in arms saying “no kink at pride!” They use the same arguments, almost verbatim, that straight homophobes were making on IGN back in the day. So much of this is cyclical even when the history isn’t lost.

[ort]

It's almost like the business model of giving away everything for free in exchange for constantly spying on you has some drawbacks.

[BloodyHell]

7 hours ago, Kal-El814 said:

 

It’s interesting. I’ve said this in other places, but it’s fascinating / sad to see modern, queer puriteens get really up in arms saying “no kink at pride!” They use the same arguments, almost verbatim, that straight homophobes were making on IGN back in the day. So much of this is cyclical even when the history isn’t lost.

Wait, no kink at pride? Since when?

[unogueen]

5 hours ago, BloodyHell said:

Wait, no kink at pride? Since when?

For a while. Now would be a good time to embark that no 'identity' is not a monolith and various communities exist everywhere. Shorthands should be divested always after use and it kills me inside that people are hashtagging their fucking names today . I get it's a good cause but still...

[BloodyHell]

10 minutes ago, unogueen said:

For a while. Now would be a good time to embark that no 'identity' is not a monolith and various communities exist everywhere. Shorthands should be divested always after use and it kills me inside that people are hashtagging their fucking names today . I get it's a good cause but still...

Bla bla bla

[Fizzzzle]

13 hours ago, Kal-El814 said:

 

It’s interesting. I’ve said this in other places, but it’s fascinating / sad to see modern, queer puriteens get really up in arms saying “no kink at pride!” They use the same arguments, almost verbatim, that straight homophobes were making on IGN back in the day. So much of this is cyclical even when the history isn’t lost.

I kept reading that as "no PINK at pride" and I was so very confused. Like, who co-opted pink and why?!

 

The overwhelming majority of people understand that pride isn't about showing off your wiener, it's about being able to express yourself. Occasionally someone will whip out their dick, but that also happens at Wendy's and you still take your kids there to get a Frosty.

[unogueen]

38 minutes ago, BloodyHell said:

Bla bla bla

What do you think kiwifarms is.

[Spork3245]

4 hours ago, unogueen said:

What do you think kiwifarms is.

A farm that produces fruit and/or poultry?

[unogueen]

16 hours ago, Spork3245 said:

A farm that produces fruit and/or poultry?

Alright, get rolled again.

[TwinIon]

I'm a digital pack rat, but I worry about the longevity of digital information all the time. I backup all my Google stuff periodically (Synology NAS has a nice app for this), I have all my important stuff in a 1-2-3 backup system, so I feel comfortable saying that my stuff will be safe as long as I'm paying attention, but who knows how long that will last.