Let me share some useful security & privacy related Google links:

• 👉 myactivity.google.com - See what you did and when: what you searched for, which youtube videos you watched, where you have been, etc. Know that this powerful feature exists, and know that you can opt out.

• 👉 takeout.google.com - Export everything you store in Google services (drive, calendar, photos, spreadsheets, etc), converting them to non-Google formats. Can be used for backing up all your Google data as huge zip files, and this also useful if you want to migrate off the cloud.

• 👉 passwords.google.com - Google's password manager allows you to have random passwords at all sites, and sync it between your devices; it is also available from a desktop Chrome (see chrome://password-manager/). Somewhat awkward for passwords not related to websites, not as feature-rich as alternatives (like bitwarden, lastpass, keepass, etc), but still much better than text files or spreadsheets that many people use.

• 👉 security.google.com - A single place to configure everything related to security: change passwords, set up two-factor auth, log you out of devices, find or wipe lost phones, etc.

• 👉 myaccount.google.com - Allows you to configure LOTS of security/privacy features.

  • /connections - This is where you can review which applications/services are connected to your account: see what can access your Google Drive or which sites you can 'sign in via Google', and shut down those you do not need.

  • /security-checkup - Checks if some key security features are turned on for your account.

I use Google's services a lot, I am an avid user of both their office environment (Workspace) and Google Cloud Platform.

Interestingly, sometimes obvious features are non-existent. For example, I am not aware of any way to review which Google Drive files/folders you shared with others, or to see how much storage space a given folder consumes. The paid service (Google Workspace - admin.google.com) has ways to check these, but they remain sci-fi for free Google users.

This post was first published on Linkedin here on 2025-11-23.