Can You Permanently Delete A Gmail Account

It is well-known that all of the Google services are used to harvest personal data. No matter how helpful they are, their use to Google in ad revenue outweighs any benefit to users.

A vast number of users often contemplate ditching Google, and the one area that often leads to questions being asked is Gmail.

Gmail is one of the most used email services on the planet, yet it is prime for Google to find out more about its users than most other services. (Learn How to Delete Google Account History)

If you want to know if you can delete your Google account, carry on reading here, and you can find out all you need to know about how to delete a Gmail email address.

You can also learn how to delete your Gmail account as well as your entire Google account.

Deleting Your Google Account

It is straightforward removing Google account when you want to delete it. All you have to do is go through the following steps.

Going through your Google account step by step will remove your Gmail address and deleting your Gmail account and your entire Google account.

1. Navigate to your ‘Google Account Settings’
2. Select your ‘Data & Personalization’
3. Scroll down until you see ‘Download, make a plan for your data or delete.’ (You can download your data before deleting your account, or you will lose it)
4. If you wish to download, delete, or make a plan, select which one you need
5. Select ‘Delete a service or your account’ (Be careful as you can merely delete google account data)
6. Select ‘delete a service’ (You will see beneath this the download your data option)
7. Sign in to your account.
8. The next pages have the services you can delete
9. Select the trashcan icon next to Gmail
10. Type in an alternate email address. It must be different from the one associated with your Gmail account. You add this in the ‘How will you sign into Google’ dialogue box. You may have entered this when you created your email account).
11. Click ‘Send verification email,’ and you will receive a mail from no-reply@accounts.google.com.
12. The subject will be ‘Gmail delete confirmation, or a Security alert for your linked Google account’
13. Follow the link for deletion in the email
14. It may ask you to log in to your account for deletion
15. When you see ‘Confirm Gmail Deletion.’ Click Yes, I want to delete ….@gmail.com permanently from your Google account.
16. This confirms the account deleting
17. Lastly, click delete Gmail, and select ‘Done’

Deleting Your Gmail Account

If you wish to delete Gmail and not delete a google service, these are the simple steps you can follow.

1. Sign into Gmail account on Google.com (in a browser)
2. Click the grid icon to the upper right-hand corner
3. Select ‘Account’
4. Under ‘Account preferences’
5. Select ‘Delete your account or services’
6. Select ‘Delete products’
7. Enter your password (You can click ‘Download Data’ here to save important information)
8. Click the trash can next to ‘Gmail’
9. Enter your alternate email address
10. Click ‘Send Verification Email’
11. Open the email from Google
12. Follow the link for deletion in the message
13. If asked, log into the Gmail account you are deleting
14. Select ‘Yes, I want to delete ….@gmail.com’ (your Gmail address)
15. Select ‘Delete Gmail’ account
16. Select ‘Done’ to delete your Gmail account

What to Know About Deleting Your Google Account

There are some things to understand before you commit to delete your entire Google account.

Here’s a quick overview:

Step 1: Understand What Deleting Your Account Means

• You’ll lose data and content from that account, such as emails, files, and photos.
• You can’t use any Google services that use your Gmail to sign in like Drive or Play Store. besides this, all subscriptions you bought with that account will end

Step 2: Review and Download Information

Before you delete your account:

1. Review info inside your account.
2. If you use your Gmail address for online banking, social media, or apps, make sure to add a new email address before proceeding.
3. Update account recovery details in case you attempt recovery of your account later.

Step 3: Delete Your Account

If you have multiple Gmail accounts, you won’t affect these when you delete one.

1. Go to myaccount.google.com
2. To the left, click Data and personalization
3. Scroll to ‘Download, delete, or make a plan for your data’
4. Click Delete a service or your account
5. Click Delete your account

If you do all this because of data harvesting, you can do something else before you go into your account, step 3, and delete Gmail account.

Before you have a deleted Gmail account, you can consider using a VPN. Using these will encrypt all your emails, so from your machine to where they are going will be under military-grade encryption. (Find the Best VPN NZ)

By doing this, no one can read your emails or any other data you send from your computer or mobile device. (Learn How to Change Google Play Country)