NEW YORK—In the year since Google launched a My Account privacy and security hub, more than one billion people have been using it to safeguard and monitor their data, Google says. Among other things the My Account area is a place where you can control the kind of ads Google delivers across the devices that you use and learn what Google does with the information it collects on you.
On this first anniversary, Google aims to make it simpler for you to access the My Account feature, which places various other personal information and account preference tools in a single place—on your PC and/or mobile device.
Coming soon, Google will surface an easy to find My Account shortcut whenever you search for your own name in Google (assuming you are already signed into your Google account.) Such a vanity search is one of the most common search requests, according to Google Product Manager for Account Controls and Settings Guemmy Kim,
What’s more, if you’re in the Google app on an Android device or iPhone, you can now summon My Account by voice, with the “OK Google, show me my Google account” command. This voice feature kicks in today for English, with other languages to follow. Google says the use of mobile voice searches has tripled during the past two years.
A third new feature will look familiar to iPhone users and folks who have Google's Android Device Manager. Google is adding a "find your phone" tool that can give you a chance to recover, and if need be, remotely wipe the contents off a handset that is lost or stolen.
To be sure, similar functionality has been available for some time via the Find My iPhone feature on iOS devices, as well on the aforementioned Android Device Manager on many Android handsets. And many of the find your phone features coming to My Account overlap with what is already available elsewhere: making a missing phone ring, locking the device, or remotely removing its data, for example..
Google says that is what is different is that inside My Account, you can apply such find a lost phone features on iOS and Android phones and tablets (though not missing computers). Google also lets you reach out directly to your carrier from within My Account, to have them for example remotely disable your SIM card and possibly protect you from identity theft by doing so. Someone who has your SIM might be able to use text messages to access your information, send messages on your behalf, or make expensive calls.
As part of the find your phone feature in My Account, you will also be able to reach out for “local help” to plot the nearest lost and found centers on a Google Map.
You'll also soon be able to use your voice to access the feature with a (likely panic stricken) "I lost my phone" command.
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