You can now keep prying eyes away from your Google search history and more, as the tech giant has just added password protection to these sensitive screens.
Google's My Activity page displays all of your Google searches, every location you've looked up on Google Maps, and every video you've watched on YouTube. Anyone who has access to your phone, tablet, or PC could view all that information and learn a lot about you.
Google is now introducing a way to put a password on your My Activity page. To add password protection, navigate to your My Activity page and click on the link that reads, "Manage My Activity verification." From there, click the "Require Extra Verification" button. At that point, Google will have you sign in again and complete your two-factor authentication, if it's turned on.
While you're on that page, it's not a bad idea to check out the settings it has for your Google ID. Here, you can turn off and on the three things: your web and app activity tracker, location history, and YouTube history.
It's handy to have a password protecting this information, but you should also consider whether you really want Google tracking and displaying this information in the first place.
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Google has long grappled with issues of tracking versus privacy. Two years ago, the search giant first offered its users the option to automatically delete their search and location history after three months.
Users can increase the time range to 18 months, and Google automatically deletes any data older than that from their accounts.
That data management tool came right after Microsoft and Facebook announced features for users to have greater control over their personal data.
These measures highlight a continuing trend of companies making an effort to show responsibility for data privacy.
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