Gmail offers an extra feature to help you protect your account
July 9, 2008
Privacy is a major concern on the web today. Everyone is trying to protect their data from prying eyes, but one particular problem a lot of users are faced with is protecting their email account(s), this includes free email accounts from providers such as Google (Gmail), Yahoo, and Microsoft (Hotmail).
The problem with free email accounts is that if someone hacks into your account there’s not a whole lot these providers will do to help users regain their account, after all it is free. Most times they will simply disable the account altogether after the user fills out a form (I have seen this on some of the help forums). When unauthorized access is gained to an account it is sometimes a result of the owner’s negligence. We sometimes fail to hit the “Sign Out” button when using a public computer or a computer that is used by more than one person. Simply closing the browser’s window will not sign you out of your email account.
For those of you who use Gmail, a new feature is offered to help you protect your account. At the bottom of your inbox, you’ll see information about the time of the last activity on your account and whether it’s still open in another location. Gmail shows you all the locations you are signed in to along with the time and IP address of all open connections. There you can verify those activities are indeed yours. And to be cautious, simply click on the “Sign out all other sessions” button to sign out of any other location you may be signed in from.
For more detailed info, read the gmail blog or Google’s support center.
For those of you who are not using Gmail I recommend that you do. Once you try it all others just won’t do. Take the red pill and find out how deep the rabbit hole goes.
Annand
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