Google is doing this new thing where if you don't log into your account for more than 8 months they lock the account. Then even if you log in with your username

Google is doing this new thing where if you don't log into your account for more than 8 months they lock the account. Then even if you log in with your username and password, and give them the alphanumeric code they send to your email, they still won't let you log in unless you add a phone number to your account. Which basically means that any account without a phone number, if left alone for 8 months, will automatically be deleted. Because it will be impossible to log in again before the "2 year idle" delete happens. I know this because it just happened to my back-up google account. Good thing I moved my email off google long ago. Google does this because their product is the user, who they sell. And users who do not link their account to valuable information like a phone number are not profitable.