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Google offers many different services these days, and a single Google account spreads your information across many of them. There are a few things you can do to lock down security and privacy on your account. we will show you
Activate two-factor authentication
Let’s start with something everyone with a Google account should do: turn on two-factor authentication (2FA). This is a simple thing to do, but it adds an important extra layer of security to your account.
With 2FA enabled, you’ll need to confirm that you’re signing in with an automated text, phone call, or authenticator app. Google started enabling 2FA for everyone in 2021, but you should enable it if you haven’t already.
RELATED: How to turn on two-factor authentication for your Google account with Google Authenticator
Turn on “Enhanced Safe Browsing” in Chrome
If you have a Google account, chances are you also use Google Chrome. You can make your browsing more secure by enabling the “Enhanced Safe Browsing” mode.
“Enhanced Safe Browsing” is based on the “Safe Browsing” feature with some additional tools. Chrome shares more browsing data with Google, allowing for more accurate and proactive threat assessments, though you must be okay with Google looking at your data.
RELATED: How to enable “Enhanced Safe Browsing” in Google Chrome
Password protect your Google activity
You probably know that Google tracks much of your activity when you use its products. This information is available to view on activity.google.com, but you don’t want just anyone to be able to see it.
The good news is that you can protect your Google activity with a password. That way, even if someone else has access to your Google account, they’ll need a password to explore all of your account activity.
RELATED: How to password protect your Google search history
Delete your Gmail without deleting your Google account
Creating a Gmail address gives you a Google account and creating a Google account gives you a Gmail address. However, you can actually have a Google account without a Gmail account.
If you don’t want to worry about someone accessing your Gmail account or face an endless stream of spam, you can get rid of it. You’ll still have access to everything else in your Google Account.
RELATED: How to delete your Gmail account without deleting your Google account
Turn off “Ok Google” history
Did you know that every time you say “Ok Google” and use a voice command, Google saves an audio recording? It’s true, and you can hear them all on the “Web & App Activity” page of your account.
If you don’t like this, you can manually delete the recordings or turn off “Include voice and audio activity”. They will no longer be recorded or saved to your account, but voice commands will continue to work as normal.
Automatically delete your web and location history
I’ve mentioned the activity that Google tracks and where you can find it a couple of times, it’s a lot. Fortunately, Google allows you to automatically delete this data after a certain period of time.
Google accounts created after 2020 have their history automatically deleted after 18 months by default. If your account is older than that, you’ll need to enable the auto-delete feature yourself. You can choose between three months or 18 months.
RELATED: How to make Google automatically delete your web and location history
Remove a Google account from Chrome
Google asks you to sign in with your Google account when you first use the Chrome browser. It may seem like you need to do this, but you don’t. If you don’t want Google to see all of your browsing history, you can sign out of Chrome.
When you remove your Google account from Chrome, you’ll lose the ability to sync bookmarks, tabs, and saved information between devices. But if you want to browse more privately, that’s a compromise you have to make.
RELATED: How to remove a Google account from Chrome
Manage apps connected to your Google account
Having a Google account makes it easy to sign in to apps and websites that support Google sign-in. The problem is that these services can add up over time, and you probably don’t use some of them anymore. You should regularly audit which services have access to your account.
You can do this on the Sign-in & security page of your Google account. Scroll down to the “Third-party apps with account access” box and select “Manage third-party access.” From there you can remove any old services.
Delete your data from a Google service
Beyond third-party apps, there are also a decent number of Google’s own services that have your data. Just because you have a Google account doesn’t mean you have to keep all of these services forever.
Google allows you to remove individual Google services from your account, removing all the data they have acquired in the process. To do this, go to the “Data and privacy” page and select “Remove a Google service”. You will see a list of services that you can remove.
Set your Google account to be automatically deleted (or shared) after you die
The last tip is a bit soft, but worth looking into. Do you want to share your family photos after you die, but destroy your search history? That can be done with Google’s Inactive Account Manager.
First, visit this page to start setting up your inactive account manager. Click “Get Started” and you’ll be guided through the process of when to mark your account as “Inactive,” how to send you reminders about it, who to contact at that time, and what to delete and share.
RELATED: How to set your Google account to automatically delete (or share) upon your death
There you have it, a few options to make your Google account a bit more secure. Google likely has a lot of your information, so make sure you keep up with things regularly.
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