Google is to make it easier for users to track their use of its services by providing a monthly activity dashboard.
Users who sign up to Account Activity will get monthly analytics reports on the number of searches they conduct, the most frequent queries they have submitted, and even the number of emails sent and received to their Gmail accounts.
“Knowing more about your own account activity also can help you take steps to protect your Google Account,” wrote Andreas Tuerk, a Google product manager, in a blog post announcing the service.
For example, if users see that their accounts have been accessed from a country they haven’t visited in the past month or via a device they don’t own, they will be able to change their password or sign up for Google’s two-step verification process, he added.
The new service is launching less than a month after Google moved forward with changes to its privacy policies, condensing more than 60 separate policies down to one all-encompassing policy.
That decision resulted in a failed lawsuit and protests from European regulators as well as 36 U.S. Attorneys General and other privacy watchdogs who claimed the changes may breach data protection laws.
This article was originally published on V3.