The world is a dangerous place, and your personal information is constantly being targeted by criminals. While you have no control over large corporations' security practices, you can take steps toprotect your own data online. To that end, Google has introduced a number of measures to make you feel safer while browsing the web, including expanded data controls, dark web scan for Gmail, new ways to better identify scam websites, and more.
The search giant will also give you access to new privacy controls as part of Android 14, allowing you to do things like approve or decline app requests to track your location and easily clear your recent searches in Google Maps.
It’s no secret that many apps request excessive amounts of information, including location data, which they frequently share with third parties. InAndroid 14, you’ll be alerted when anapp requests permission to share your location data with a third party, a feature that you can see for yourself in Android 14 Beta 2. Furthermore, a “Data deletion” section is being added to theGoogle Play Data safety sectionof apps, allowing you to easily request that your data or account be deleted.
To provide more context about an image you find online, Google is rolling out a new feature called “About This Image,” which will look into where images have been first spotted on the web and whether they’re authentic or manipulated.
Google also says it has refreshed its Safe Browsing API to detect malicious sites and warn you if you’re about to visit one. The new security check relies on artificial intelligence, and Google notes that it speeds up its ability to check and identify compromised sites, with an additional 25% ofphishing attemptsbeing blocked in Chrome and Android every month.
The latest security measures were pushed through during theI/O 2023 conference, possibly to quell concerns about Google’s platform’s security protocols, some of which can be valid at times.
