Comment by istillwritecode
3 years ago
I fully expect to someday lose access to my gmail account because I regularly delete cookies and I won't give them a phone number. If they won't accept a password as proof of ownership on an account, then the account will someday be dead.
So, I have this issue as well, but I found a way around it.
Add the google account to an old android phone you don't use (maybe even an emulated android would work) and it skips all the verification stuff simply because it's on a phone. That way you can keep it logged in and change things even if you can't log in via a browser.
Part of the issue is the account is not dead, in the way many people think. Once you are locked out, after a period of time, Google can do what it wants with it. Which may include looking over or extracting any data from it, then selling it to whoever they like. And where those other entities may be storing your information (or continuously updating a profile about you), for their purposes and however long they like.
So the account is "dead" to you, but not necessarily to Google or at least not until they extract what they want from it (and have sold it to whoever).
Do you have a citation?
There isn't, and of course they will not spell it out. Read Google's policies (https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=en-US). Google makes it very clear they collect a tremendous amount of data when the account is active, and reserves the right to retain data as necessary for business or legal purposes, security, fraud and abuse prevention, or financial record-keeping.
It's data on their servers that they control, that no longer has a user. The data then can fall into any of the categories mentioned above, to include the possibility of transfer to 3rd party entities. That they may eventually delete it, is different from how they may have used it or to what entities they may have sent portions to.