Google’s online cloud storage

Why in news?

From June 1, 2021 Google’s online cloud storage policy will undergo a major change.

What is Google’s existing policy?

Regular Google Account Users will get 15GB of free storage space towards the user’s Gmail, Drive and Photos.
However, this free space is not counted for photos uploaded in Google Photos app.
Usually, photos of higher resolution are compressed & saved without running out of space on the free account.

What are the new changes in the policy?

From June 1, 2021, Google Photos will not be free & will be counted towards the account storage.
Photos & videos of original resolution which are uploaded will not be affected as they are counted against the online storage available in your account.

Why Google is making this change?

It says that people are uploading more content than ever before—more than 4.3 million GB are added across Gmail, Drive, and Photos every day.
It needs to make these changes to keep pace with the growing demand.
Further, users who are dependent on Google Photos will have to make payments for using its cloud service.
Under its Google One program, it starts at 200GB for Rs 210 per month, 2TB for Rs 650 per month or Rs 6500 per year, 10TB at Rs 3,250 per month and 20TB at Rs 6,500 per month.

How will the existing users be affected?

All photos and videos uploaded before June 1, 2021 will continue to remain free, will not be counted against the storage & won’t be deleted.
But all those uploaded post June 1, 2021 will be counted against the Google’s free space.
If more photos and videos uploaded, users have to pay for their services.
However, existing paid Google One account users will not be affected by these changes.

Why is Google deleting content from inactive accounts?

As per its new policy, Google will delete content from inactive accounts (accounts inactive for more than two years).

Account can be kept active by periodically visiting Gmail, Google Photos and Google Drive.

· Those who are within their storage quota and in good-standing will not be affected.

If the storage limit is exceeded for 2 years, content will be deleted. & Google will warn before it decides to delete.

Source: The Indian Express