“For the first time in its almost two decades as a public company, Google revenue has grown by less than 10% for four consecutive quarters.”
Google sells the purge as security, citing abandoned accounts being 10x less likely to have two-step verification. The warning arrived under the subject line “Updating our Google Account inactivity policy,” which is how you write an email you expect people to ignore. Paying subscribers and business accounts are exempt. Free storage costs money, and this is the cost-cutting line item with a security label on it.