As some of you may know, today is Safer Internet Day. For this occasion, Google reached out to share some news on that front, to show us what steps it’s taking to make our life more secure, amongst other things.
Google makes additional steps to make our online life more secure
The company announced that it will be providing 100,000 security keys to “high risk users” in 2023, at no cost. On top of that, Google is also expanding its partnerships with the International Foundation of Electoral Systems (IFES) and Defending Digital Campaigns (DDC) to “help protect democracies worldwide”.
Google also wanted to highlight the importance of Google Password Manager. It comes integrated into Android devices and Google Chrome. On both platforms, access to your passwords is “protected across the full lifecycle: from creation, to storage, to autofill”. Google kind of compared Google Password Manager to a bank, but instead of money, it keeps all your passwords safe.
The company highlighted that all your passwords are kept safe with the same advanced security Google uses to protect everything in your Google Account. That goes for emails, photos, and documents.
Google also highlighted that it uses state of the art technology to “stop the majority of online threats before they emerge”. Google protects Gmail users from nearly 15 billion unwanted messages a day, blocking more than 99.9% of spam, phishing, and malware. The company will begin rolling out further spam protections in Google Drive, in the coming weeks.
Google is also keeping your kids safe online, and there are tools that can help you monitor their activity
Google also puts a great focus on protecting kids online. The company offers a range of tools for this purpose, like Family Link, for example. That feature allows parents to monitor their kids’ online activity, set screen time limits, apply content restrictions, and so on.
Now, Google wanted to announce some new tools as well. In its press release, it announced three new ways it will keep your kids and family safe online. First, the company is expanding the SafeSearch setting.
This will happen in the coming months, as a new setting will blur out explicit imagery if it appears in Search results when SafeSearch filtering isn’t turned on.
The second change is a partnership with the National Parent Teacher Association (PTA). Thanks to this partnership, Google will sponsor local ‘Be Internet Awesome” events for parents and families at 50 school campuses.
On top of all that, Google is also launching the YouTube Kids playlist ‘Build a Safer Internet”. This playlist will feature content “that raises awareness about the safe, responsive, and positive use of technology for families”.