Google My Activity is making a big privacy and security push this week. The page is now adding extra password verification before it shows all your account usage and interactions.
Google My Activity Password
Currently, visiting My Activity on the web will immediately load a list of activity that helps Google make services more useful for you, like helping you rediscover the things that you have searched for, read, and watched.
Opening the page this week presents a prompt to add more security to My Activity by turning on extra verification, according to Android Police. If you turn on extra verification, Google will make sure that it is really you before you can even see or delete your full history on My Activity.
This can help keep your history safer on shared devices. This setting only applies to My Activity. Your history may still appear in other Google products.
Also Read: Google’s ‘My Account’ Page Gives You More Control On Your Security And Privacy: What To Know
After selecting a My Activity option, you will be prompted to enter your Google Account password to set it on the Google My Activity webpage. Once done, the top half of the page loads like normal, but the actual full history list is locked until you verify that it is you.
This takes you to the standard sign-in page and is a good extra measure, especially if you use a shared computer and forget to log out from your browsing sessions.
This follows Google at I/O event emphasizing its security and privacy practices and a push in major consumer apps like Gmail, Drive, and Photos about how content is not used for advertising.
Google My Activity Dark Theme
This password update came right after the Google My Activity page became the latest of the Google websites to feature a dark theme, 9to5Google reported.
Google records how you interact with its apps and service, hence the decision to add another password to the system. Launched in 2016, My Activity lets you see and delete your activity using the controls on this page.
The activity that you keep helps Google make services more useful for you, like browsing through the things that you have seen in the past for reminder.
Organized as a reverse-chronological timeline in either Bundle or Item view, it makes for a very long list that’s somewhat mitigated by date or product filters.
There is also a search capability, while tapping an entry provides even more detail about an interaction. At the very top of the page, Google lists three setting to turn it on and off with each featuring additional options: Web & App Activity, Location, and YouTube History.
Given that it’s a long list for users to spend some time scrolling through, the page is an ideal candidate to receive a dark theme. My Activity leverages Google’s typical dark gray background with graphics and logos adjusted accordingly.
This night mode gets applied automatically and follows your system setting on both Android and iOS, as well as desktop platforms, like macOS and Windows. It was rolled out in January. However, users report requiring a page refresh before it take effect.
Aside from the night mode feature and the password feature, Google has not announced additional update to My Activity this year.
Related Article: Google Forms No Longer Allowed To Be Transferred to Other Accounts as Part of New Privacy Protection Rule
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Written by Sophie Webster
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