In addition to a range of new developer tools and new features in Workspace and Google Meet, Google announced during its I/O conference this week several new security features to help keep users and organizations secure.
The new security capabilities include account safety for apps, new phishing protections, virtual cards and automatic enrollment in multi-factor authentication.
For Google’s productivity tools in Workspace, the company is scaling the phishing and malware protections currently guarding Gmail to Google Slides, Docs and Sheets, covering more of the productivity suite’s tools. If a Doc, Sheet or Slide contains phishing links or malware, users will be automatically alerted and guided back to safety, Google says.
The company says it is also automatically enrolling even more users into its two-step verification offering in a move designed to push users to embrace passwordless authentication. This comes after the company enrolled more than 150 million accounts in two-step verification last year, which Google says resulted in a 50% decrease in account compromise.
Google also said during I/O that it is also adding an account safety stats to apps, which is essentially a simple yellow alert icon on a user’s profile picture that will flag actions they should take to secure the account.
To help secure online purchase, Google is launching virtual cards on Chrome and Android that will add an additional layer of security by replacing card numbers with a district, virtual number. This is designed to eliminate the need to manually enter card details at checkout. The feature can be managed at pay.google.com. This will be rolling out for most major credit cards this summer.
Google also introduced Protected Computing, a new set of technologies to give users more control over their data by minimizing data footprint, de-identifying data and restricting access to sensitive data.
The company is even taking a similar approach in Google Search, making it easier for people to request the removal of search results containing their personal information, such as addresses, phone numbers and email.
Similarly, users will get more control over the ads they see on YouTube, Search and their Discover feed via My Ad Center.
For the full list of other security improvements and other I/O announcements, read this Google blog.
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