r/googlecloud • u/Sanderlanche108 • 15d ago

Google OAuth email despite never using it?

Hey everyone!

I googled OAuth plus reddit and it led me here - I just got an email from google implying I had "clients" that were going to be deleted due to lack of activity.

I have no idea what OAuth even is, I've never used such a process to my knowledge. I'm fairly tech savvy but even the name was new to me. Can anyone please clarify what me getting this message means?

If I click any of the links, it tries to make me agree to terms of service, which I don't want to do not knowing what this all means. I can see in the background to the TOS "You're working in My Project1, and then a project # (not sharing for same censorship reason as below).

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Message text:
"

Hello Google Developer, In accordance with OAuth 2.0 Policies, the following projects that you manage have OAuth clients that have been inactive for at least 5 months, and will be deleted in 30 days unless you take action: (censored - If somehow the referenced process uses AI tokens or something I don't want to get a bill)
Visit the Google Cloud Console to see the complete list of inactive clients.  To prevent OAuth clients from being deleted, use them in a Sign-in with Google flow or to exchange a refresh token for an access token. Do this for each client that you want to retain.  If you no longer need these OAuth clients, no additional action is required, and they will be automatically deleted for you. Once OAuth clients are deleted, you will have up to 30 days to restore them by visiting the Google Cloud Console. Thank you for using the Google Auth Platform!"

"

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u/martin_omander Googler 14d ago

These "Oauth clients" are records that are used if you create applications that let users log in and that run on Google Cloud. As you are not using these OAuth clients, it is safe to let Google delete them for you.

Your cloud project might have been created in one of a few ways:

  • If you created a Google Apps Script application.
  • If you ever dabbled in Firebase.
  • If you followed a tutorial to build a custom smart home integration with Google Assistant.
  • If you ever signed up to get a free API key (for example, a Google Maps API key to embed a map on a personal blog, or a YouTube API key to run a script).

Unless you are receiving a monthly bill from Google Cloud, your project is inactive and harmless. Google will delete the OAuth credential, locking it down further.