Google didn’t have a great time of things last time they rolled out a new security feature – I was halfway through drafting a blog on their Password Alert tool when someone found a way to bypass it completely.
Their new addition to beefing up the security of accounts comes in the form of an all-in-one Account page, which lets Google users manage security and privacy in one easy to find location:
myaccount(dot)google(dot)com
This is a vast improvement over the occasional game of “click the link leapfrog” we’ve had to play in the past when attempting to find a specific security feature buried in a hard to find page.
“Sign In & Security”, “Personal Info & Privacy” and “Account Preferences” deal with everything from ad settings and account history to signing in and device activity. You can drill down as much as you like, or take the more general overview listed under the Security / Privacy Check-Up banners.
I particularly like the Account History section, which organises all of those Google sections which collect data like location / search history and allows you to switch them on or off with no fuss – and if you want to delete data which has already been collected up to this point, you can do that too.
If you’re not logged in – or don’t have a Google account – you can still make use of some options, including Google Search, YouTube search and Ad settings.
As Google services continue to grow, a central location for all things privacy and security is long overdue ad we advise readers to take a look and start locking things down. It’s entirely possible there’s some options or data being collected which you were unaware of, and Google have also created a new page dealing with types of data collection located at
privacy(dot)google(dot)com
Clarity and ease of access where something like this is concerned can only be a good thing, and we hope to see more efforts to simplify the complicated world of data security in the near future.
Christopher Boyd
A good idea; I’ve already tweaked a few things.
My name is Alex Helton, and I approve of this change.
I have been using all the security features for a couple years now and I agree with the author,it’s about time they simply and bring it all together in one place. With the first new security page a few months back,I took the security checkups and received an extra two gigabyte’s of free space added to my Drive account. I did not need to make any changes,as I had my account as safe as possible already.
The one thing that freaked me outa few years back,was after turning on two factor sign ins, my phone prompted me to signin again(because my device is associated withh my account) and so now,when I change my password,there is an immediate sign in page for my device, so they can be synced on the same account. The reason for the freakout? The first time,my phone only asked for my password,and was not the usual Google page with my email and or my profile picture displayed. And acted like simplelocker, I could not do anything on my phone until I entered the password. I was getting notices I could not clear. Finally,not understanding,I did a factory reset,and then signed back into Google on the normal page to restore all my backed up information. Fortunately,I did not have many apps then,or other stored info.
Google has come a long way in making things easier for sign ins on Android devices. Definitely like what I see now. But before,it was extremely difficult for a noob.
jojocaparino41@gmail.com