Google Workspace for Education now has an inactive account policy

[Marlon Yu]

I’m posting this question for Steve @ Google in the techies forum as I’m sure many will be interested to know as well. Hopefully he sees this …

 

Received an email today from Google that they may start deleting inactive accounts (not logged in during the past 2 years).

 

What does this mean for break-glass super admin accounts and services accounts (for GCP API or apps) or generic accounts used for Drive/Classroom/Sites ownership? Is there a way to exclude these accounts? Will an account used for API access be considered active if an API was accessed? What about accounts for GSPS or GCDS that don’t log in? We didn’t want to tie it to a normal user account that would get disabled if the user left. What does Google recommend to do/use instead for these?

 

Marlon

 

[Steve Smith]

Hi Marlon,

Let me investigate this for you and find the best answer to your questions.

[Steve Smith - Google for Education NZ]

Mōrena all,

I have grabbed  couple of tips from our support site and will follow up with more.

The most basic explanation is to ensure the accounts are logged into and a doc is opened within the two years ( I would suggest once a year, add it to the calendar) 

from support (https://support.google.com/a/answer/16110912?#zippy=%2Cif-you-want-to-make-sure-your-account-is-active)

There are also discussion about this in our admins community at googleforeducommunity.com/admin_hub - please join if you have not yet

From Support...

An active Google Workspace for Education User Account

A Google Workspace for Education User Account that is in use is considered active. Activity might include actions you take when you sign in or while you’re signed in to your Google Workspace for Education Account, for example ; Logging into your Google Workspace for Education account

Exceptions to this policy

A Google Workspace for Education Account is considered active even if it has not been used within a 2-year period if one or more of these applies:...

• ...Your Google Workspace for Education Account has an active Vault retention rule applied.

How to manage inactive users in your organization

• -Assign a Gmail Only User license—This license allows users who don’t need access to all of the tools in Google Workspace for Education to keep access to Gmail. Gmail Only users still need to maintain activity within a 2-year period in order to keep their account active.
• -Assign an Archived User license—This license ensures that user data is retained (based on Vault retention rules) and protected by the same industry-leading security as users with an Education Fundamentals license, but does not allow the user to sign in to their Google Account on any system, including Workspace services. Learn more on how to apply an Archived User license. Archived Users need to have a retention rule applied by the admin for the account to remain active