With so many cyber security issues and phishing attacks on e-mail accounts lately, keeping your data and personal information safe online is crucial. If you are a Gmail user like myself, you can track your account activity to make sure your account is not being accessed by someone else. I recently discovered a feature on Gmail that I would like to share with you. Comment below if you find this post useful or want more tech / social media posts.

Why do you want to track your Gmail account activity?

Tracking your Gmail account activity is a feature that is available to all Gmail users that allow users to see sign-in history, including the location, dates and times that your Gmail account was used. You can even see the IP addresses used to access your account.

Account activity is similar to Activity on Facebook where you can see what posts/status you have liked, commented on, etc. To see your Gmail account activity, on your computer, open Gmail. Then click on Details in the bottom right.

Tip: Gmail allows you to also see you recent security events page where you can see security updates for your entire Google Account.

When you get to the activity details page, you will see all the places (browser, mobile, etc.) where your account has been opened and all the sessions that have not been signed out of. There is even a ‘Sign out all other web sessions’ button that will allow you to sign out of all your accounts. This is extremely useful if you don’t recognize any of the locations on your list. To sign out of all sessions except the one you have open in front of you, click Sign out all other web sessions.

Also on the details page is a three columns table that shows Access Type, Location (IP address), and Date/Time.

Access type: In the “Access type” section, you’ll see the browser, device, or mail server (like POP or IMAP) that you accessed Gmail from.

Location (IP address): You can see the last 10 IP addresses and approximate locations that accessed your Gmail account.

• If you got a warning about suspicious activity in your account, you might also see up to 3 additional IP addresses that have been labeled as suspicious.
• There are a few reasons you may see multiple IP addresses or locations in your activity:
• If you use POP or IMAP to read your mail on other services, like Apple Mail or Microsoft Outlook, this location information will be included, too.
• If you use Mail Fetcher, a Google IP will show up because your messages are being fetched from a Google server.
• If you use Gmail on a phone or tablet, your Internet service or mobile carrier’s location may show up. This may be a location far from where you are. As long as the name of the carrier matches yours, this isn’t unusual.

Concurrent session information: In the “Concurrent session information” section, you’ll see if you’re signed in to Gmail on another device, browser, or location.

Alert preference: this will show an alert for unusual activity.

In my opinion, you can never be too careful or vigilant when it comes to your online security, especially with your personal information and data. As a rule, I always log out of all my accounts when I use public computers. Every 60-90 days I change my password. And, I always lock my phone and I don’t ever share my password with anyone. Of course, there is not much you can do to stop the hackers from accessing your account; however, these little steps go a long way when it comes to protecting yourself and personal data online. Being able to track unknown account activity will definitely be helpful to stop access to your account.

Comment below if you find this post useful or want more tech / social media posts.

Xo

Glor