1. Keeping security settings simple

The Security Checkup is a quick way to control the security settings for your Google Account. You can add a recovery phone number so we can help if you’re ever locked out of your account, strengthen your password settings, see which devices are connected to your account, and more. If you complete the Security Checkup by February 11, you’ll also get 2GB of extra Google Drive storage, which can be used across Google Drive, Gmail, and Photos.
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Safer Internet Day is a great time to do it, but you can—and should!—take a Security Checkup on a regular basis. Start your Security Checkup by visiting My Account.

2. Informing Gmail users about potentially unsafe messages

If you and your Grandpa both use Gmail to exchange messages, your connections are encrypted and authenticated. That means no peering eyes can read those emails as they zoom across the web, and you can be confident that the message from your Grandpa in size 48 font (with no punctuation and a few misspellings) is really from him!

However, as our Safer Email Transparency Report explains, these things are not always true when Gmail interacts with other mail services. Today, we’re introducing changes in Gmail on the web to let people know when a received message was not encrypted, if you’re composing a message to a recipient whose email service doesn’t support TLS encryption, or when the sender’s domain couldn’t be authenticated.

Here’s the notice you’ll see in Gmail before you send a message to a service that doesn’t support TLS encryption. You’ll also see the broken lock icon if you receive a message that was sent without TLS encryption.
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If you receive a message that can’t be authenticated, you’ll see a question mark where you might otherwise see a profile photo or logo:
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For more information, check out the Gmail and Google for Work blogs.

3. Protecting you from bad apps
Dangerous apps that phish and steal your personal information, or hold your phone hostage and make you pay to unlock it, have no place on your smartphone—or any device, for that matter.

Google Play helps protect your Android device by rejecting bad apps that don’t comply with our Play policies. It also conducts more than 200 million daily security scans of devices, in tandem with our Safe Browsing system, for any signs of trouble. Last year, bad apps were installed on fewer than 0.13% of Android devices that install apps only from Google Play.

Learn more about these, and other Android security features — like app sandboxing, monthly security updates for Nexus and other devices, and our Security Rewards Program—in new research we’ve made public on our Android blog.

4. Busting bad advertising practices
Malicious advertising “botnets” try to send phony visitors to websites to make money from online ads. Botnets threaten the businesses of honest advertisers and publishers, and because they’re often made up of devices infected with malware, they put users in harm’s way too.

We've worked to keep botnets out of our ads systems, cutting them out of advertising revenue, and making it harder to make money from distributing malware and Unwanted Software. Now, as part of our effort to fight bad ads online, we’re reinforcing our existing botnet defenses by automatically filtering traffic from three of the top ad fraud botnets, comprising more than 500,000 infected user machines. Learn more about this update on the Doubleclick blog.

Online security and safety are being discussed more often, and with more urgency, than ever before. We hope you’ll take a few minutes today to learn how Google protects your data and how we can work toward a safer web, for everyone.


Posted by Gerhard, VP Security and Privacy
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Here are some of the important items you can review during your Security Checkup:
  • Recovery information: Adding a phone number can help us get in touch if you’re locked out of your account. We’ll only use your phone number to protect your account, unless you say otherwise.
  • Recent activity: This is a quick overview of your recent sign-ins to Google. If you see any activity from a location or device you don’t recognize, change your password immediately.
  • Account permissions: These are the apps, websites and devices connected to your Google account. Take a look and make sure you trust—and actually use—all of them. You might want to remove an old phone, or that dusty app you never use.
It takes just a few minutes to make sure your information is accurate and up to date. Visit your Account Settings and take your Security Checkup today.

Update: As an extra thank you, we’ll add 2GB to your Drive storage plan if you complete the Security Checkup by February 17. We’ll be granting the storage automatically to everyone around 28 February 2015 and we’ll send you an email when your adjustment is complete..

Posted by Andreas Tuerk, Product Manager
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Today, on Safer Internet Day 2012, we’re happy to announce that this collaboration is expanding. Telefono Azzuro will share its Search Appliance with all of the members of Missing Children Europe (MCE), the federation of national NGOs responsible for the European 116.000 phone hotline, who will use Google's search technology on their public websites. Eventually, the Search Appliance will also be linked to MCE’s interconnected European database of missing children (currently under construction), enabling each member NGO to better organise its own case files and conduct secure searches on its internal network.

This is just one example of how seriously we take the challenge of increasing safety on the web, but on Safer Internet Day, we’re also involved in a whole host of initiatives all over Europe, including:

Digital literacy education / workshops
  • Italy: we’re running online safety workshops with Telefono Azzurro / Sicuri in Rete and with the Italian Postal and Communications Police (at more than 100 schools); and we’re distributing online safety information to parents together with the Italian Association of Paediatricians.
  • Portugal: we’re launching the Google Family Safety Center at an event chaired by the President of National Commission for Support for Children.
  • Russia: We’re partnering with Net Literacy to engage over 200 Russian journalism students in digital literacy campaigning in schools and communities
Events
  • UK: we’re hosting online safety events with CEOP, the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre, and Raceonline; we’re also participating in workshops organised by the UK Safer Internet Centre.
  • Russia: we’re working with the Russia Safe Internet Centre and Russian Association of Electronic Communications to run a series of international expert panels at the Safer Internet Forum.
  • Germany: Wieland Holfelder, Google Engineering Director, is keynoting a session on the platform for safe internet use at the Safer Internet Event in Germany, organized by Bitkom and the Ministry of Consumer Protection (BMELV).
Research
Technology
  • France: we’re supporting the work of e-Enfance.org on a new Google Chrome browser extension called NetEcoute, which will make it easy for youngsters to start an online discussion with a helpline counselor.
These initiatives are part of our global outreach on Safer Internet Day - but we hope that each of them will - in their own way - be a step forward for online safety education.

Posted by Laura Bononcini, Senior Policy Analyst, Google

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