You can now require a password before viewing Google's ‘My Activity’ usage

Part of Google's new privacy and security push

What you need to know

• You can now require a password before viewing Google's My Activity page.
• This arrives after seeing many privacy and security announcements at Google I/O 2021.
• The process doesn't let you create a new password but requires you to log into your Google account.

One of the biggest themes of Google I/O 2021 surrounded keeping your accounts and information secure. There are coming to apps like Google Photos with its Locked Folders, along with a slew of new improvements to the built-in password manager on Chrome for Android. Now, Google is adding another way to keep your precious information protected, and it has everything to do with the My Activity landing page.

Google's My Activity page is essentially a hub where you can view all of the different information that Google has stored regarding your account. This includes Search results, Maps, YouTube, Shopping, and more. But until now, this information could have been accessed by anyone who's able to log into your account, or even if you left a browser window open on your computer.

Starting today, when you visit the 'My Activity' page (via 9to5Google), a little prompt appears stating "Safer with Google - You can add more security to My Activity by turning on extra verification." This bubble points to a new section under Google protects your privacy and security.

From here, you can either click Manage or Dismiss within the bubble, or click Manage My Activity verification. A new pop-up window will appear in the same browser tab, providing you the option to either Require extra verification or not. When requiring the extra verification, you'll need to again enter your Google account password, before being able to view your "My Google Activity" page.

We're a little bit surprised that this wasn't already available. But we're also happy to see that Google keeps an eye on the "little" things that we can do to make our accounts and information more secure.