Why Do We Still Let Webmail Services Get Away With Deleting Our Data?

It's 2009. Storage is so cheap that Email providers like Yahoo are literally giving you as much space as you want . Yet we still have to deal with archaic policies that allow these Email providers to delete everything in our inboxes if, for whatever reason, we forget to login for a few months. The time limits vary: Yahoo cuts you off at 4 months, Windows Live Hotmail at 60 days, and Gmail after a more lenient 9 months of inactivity (you can see a more comprehensive listing here ). Most of them have some kind of grace period where your account enters a deactivated 'hibernation' state, but still retains its data. Some of them have these policies in print but rarely actually delete your account. But for others, once you cross the threshold, every Email message, photo, and file attachment is gone for good.