Thank you. I didn’t realize this point. For others:

> Exceptions to this policy

> A Google 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 Account has been used to purchase a digital item, for example, a book or movie.

https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/12418290?hl=en#zi...

I wonder if this covers Play Store microtransactions.

Thank you for pointing this out. A lot of the media coverage around Google's policy update skips mentioning the exceptions.

Buying a movie from google for that certainty sounds pretty good huh. I wonder if the purchase might also dissuade any accidental deletions of a google account.

> Buying a movie from google for that certainty sounds pretty good huh. I wonder if the purchase might also dissuade any accidental deletions of a google account.

I feel like I must mention here: I anal. I am not a lawyer. That being said, Google accounts are complex. Here is what it says near the top of the page in the same link I posted:

> Google also reserves the right to delete data in a product if you are inactive in that product for at least two years. This is determined based on each product's inactivity policies.

My personal opinion is that Google isn't committing to deleting your Google mail data at exactly two years whether you bought a YouTube movie. However, Google is also not committing to preserving / storing say your location history (for example) in perpetuity because you bought a YouTube movie.

Once again, this is just what I read. I am not a lawyer, and definitely not a Google lawyer.