Google's latest effort to protect the security and privacy of its users includes more prominent notifications.
Specifically, when the company detects a potentially serious problem with your account, it will notify you directly through the Google app you use.
There's a good reason for Google to make its already prominent security alerts clearer. When the company introduced Android in 2015, it says it saw a 20x increase in the number of people engaging with security alerts within an hour of receiving them.
Another advantage of these new notifications is that they are difficult to spoof, as they are issued directly through the apps . Google will begin rolling out the updated notifications to a small subset of its users over the next two weeks, with wider availability planned for early next year.
In addition to the new notifications, the company is detailing two privacy-focused features. The first is a guest mode for Assistant Google that will be rolling out in the “coming weeks.” As the company points out, there are plenty of situations where you probably don’t want Assistant to save a question or ask for your account. That’s where this new feature comes in.
“With a simple voice command, you can turn on guest mode, and your Assistant interactions in this mode won’t be saved to your account,” the company says. It appears that Google is saving conversations in this case, but it’s not tied to a specific account, according to Engadget.
Finally, Google says it will soon give you the option to manually edit your Location History data through your Timeline . You'll be able to edit the places you've visited, as well as add any missing locations
Google's new features won't stop phishing and other malicious activities that could compromise your account, but if you're diligent about using them, they'll give you peace of mind.
