Today is Safer Internet Day globally and to kick things off here in New Zealand, we hosted a breakfast to talk about online safety for families and children. We welcomed media and parents into Google to participate in a discussion about some helpful ways that parents can check their safety settings and teach their children about online citizenship.

Lucian Teo, User Outreach and Education Manager from Google’s Trust and Safety team, delivered the workshop and we were joined by Netsafe’s CEO Martin Cocker who also spoke about the incredible work they’ve been doing for the past 20 years to keep Kiwis safe online. We shared Google and Netsafe’s five top tips to teach your kids about online safety:

1. Be mindful of what and to whom you are sharing your information with. Encourage thoughtful sharing by treating online communication like face-to-face communication.
2. Don’t trust everything you see online. Be discerning and ‘think before you click’.
3. Safeguard your personal information & take a privacy check up.
4. Being kind online creates a brighter and safer place for everyone on the internet.
5. If you see something, say something. When in doubt, talk it out with someone you trust.

While today is a great moment to pause and think carefully about how we’re keeping our families and kids safe online, this is also something that we should be considering all year round. To find out more, visit the Google Safety Centre for updated resources, easy security tips and information dedicated to educating and empowering people on important topics like data security, privacy controls and how to use technology in a way that is right for your family.

Safer Internet Day aims to raise awareness about online safety and encourages everyone to help create a better internet. We hope that you take the opportunity today and regularly throughout the year to use these tools to stay safe online


Post content Posted by Caroline Rainsford, Country Manager Google New Zealand

In 2005, we set out to map the world. Since then we’ve pushed the limits of what a map can do: from helping you easily navigate from point A to B to helping you explore and get things done in the world. With more than 1 billion people turning to Google Maps to see and explore the world, we're celebrating our 15th birthday with a new look and product updates based on feedback from you.

A fresh look from the inside out
Starting today, you'll see an updated Google Maps app for Android and iOS that gives you everything you need right at your fingertips with five easy-to-access tabs: Explore, Commute, Saved, Contribute and Updates.

• Explore: Looking for a place nearby to grab lunch, enjoy live music or play arcade games? In the Explore tab, you’ll find information, ratings, reviews and more for about 200 million places around the world, including local restaurants, nearby attractions and city landmarks.

• Commute: Whether you’re traveling by car or public transit, the Commute tab is there to make sure you’re on the most efficient route. Set up your daily commute to get real-time traffic updates, travel times and suggestions for alternative routes.

• Saved: People have saved more than 6.5 billion places on Google Maps—from the new bakery across town to the famous restaurant on your upcoming vacation. Now you can view all of these spots in one convenient place as well as find and organize plans for an upcoming trip and share recommendations based on places you've been.

• Contribute: Hundreds of millions of people each year contribute information that helps keep Google Maps up to date. With the new Contribute tab, you can easily share local knowledge, such as details about roads and addresses, missing places, business reviews and photos. Each contribution goes a long way in helping others learn about new places and decide what to do.

• Updates: The new Updates tab provides you with a feed of trending, must-see spots from local experts and publishers, like The Infatuation. In addition to discovering, saving and sharing recommendations with your network, you can also directly chat with businesses to get questions answered.

We’re also updating our look with a new Google Maps icon that reflects the evolution we’ve made mapping the world. It’s based on a key part of Google Maps since the very beginning, the pin, and represents the shift we’ve made from getting you to your destination to also helping you discover new places and experiences.

And because we can’t resist a good birthday celebration, keep an eye out for our celebratory party-themed car icon, available for a limited time when you navigate with Google Maps.


Made for you, on the go
We’re constantly evolving to help you get around—no matter how you choose to travel. Our new transit features in the Google Maps app help you stay informed when you’re taking public transportation.

Last year, we introduced crowdedness predictions to help you see how crowded your bus, train or subway is likely to be based on past rides. To help you plan your travels, we’re adding new insights about your route from past riders, so you’ll soon be able to see important details, such as:

Temperature: For a more comfortable ride, check in advance if the temperature is considered by past riders as on the colder or warmer side.
Accessibility: If you have special needs or require additional support, you can now identify public transit lines with staffed assistance, accessible entrance and seating, accessible stop-button or hi-visible LED.
Women’s Carriage: In regions where transit systems have designated women's sections or carriages, we'll help surface this information along with whether other passengers abide by it.
Security Onboard: Feel safer knowing if security monitoring is on board—whether that’s with a security guard present, installed security cameras or an available helpline.
Number of carriages available: In Japan only, you can pick a route based on the number of carriages so that it increases your chances of getting a seat.

These useful bits of information come from past riders who've shared their experiences and will appear alongside public transit routes when available. To help future riders, you can answer a short survey within Google Maps about your experience on recent trips. We’ll start rolling this out globally in March, with availability varying by region and municipal transportation agency.



A sense of direction
Last year, we introduced Live View to help you quickly decide which way to go when you start a walking route with Google Maps. By combining Street View’s real-world imagery, machine learning and smartphone sensors, Live View in Google Maps shows you your surroundings with the directions overlaid in augmented reality.

Over the coming months, we’ll be expanding Live View and testing new capabilities, starting with better assistance whenever you’re searching for a place. You’ll be able to quickly see how far away and in which direction a place is.


A big thank you to everyone for placing your trust in us and for being with us on this wild ride over the last 15 years. We can’t wait to see what the next 15 years bring!

Diversity and individuality are at once something that defines and unites the people of New Zealand. The same can be said for the breadth of interesting, colourful and quirky native bird fauna we have on our three islands. So today, as we pause to recognise the 1840 signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, the Google Doodle pays tribute to some of our iconic native birds.

Inspired by the variety, colour and brilliance seen in native birds of New Zealand, the artwork depicts three of our most precious birds. Kiwi’s popular namesake, the iconic bird sits at the centre, with the Tūī and the Kererū either side.

New Zealand’s bush is home to around 168 different native birds. And astonishingly over half of these are species cannot be found anywhere else in the world. The Tūī, treasured for its imitation skills, is able to use two voice boxes to mimic nearby sounds. The Kererū’s distinct sound of its wing beat in flight would be recognised by many. And of course the Kiwi, which instead of just being a popular nickname for people from Aotearoa, is the only bird in the world with nostrils at the end of its long bill.

Our rich collection of bird fauna has developed these individual characteristics from evolving on our remote South Pacific island shores. Look up into the sky, or down to the ground, and enjoy these wonders of biodiversity.


Post content Posted by Caroline Rainsford, Country Manager, Google New Zealand

Keeping you safe online is a top priority at Google, especially for the thousands of Googlers who work on privacy and security around the world. Today on Data Privacy Day, we’re sharing some of the many ways we keep you safe online and across our products—from built-in protections to easy tools that keep you in control of your privacy.

1. Keep your passwords safe

Password Manager in your Google Account helps you remember and securely store strong passwords for all your online accounts. With Password Checkup, one click will tell you if any of your passwords are weak—whether you’ve reused them across multiple sites, or if we've discovered they’ve been compromised in a third-party data breach—and we’ll give you the link to change them.

2. Let Google automatically delete your data

With auto-delete for Location History, Web & App Activity and YouTube History, you can choose to have Google automatically and continuously delete your activity and location history after 3 or 18 months. You can also control what data is saved in your account with easy on/off controls in your Google Account, and even delete your data by date, product and topic.

3. Use your favourite Google apps in Incognito mode

Incognito mode has been one of our most popular privacy controls since it launched with Chrome in 2008, and last year we added it to YouTube and Google Maps. Tap from your profile picture to easily turn it on or off. When you turn on Incognito mode in Maps, your activity—like the places you search or get directions to—won’t be saved to your Google Account. When you turn off Incognito mode, you’ll return to a personalised Google Maps experience with restaurant recommendations, information about your commute, and other features tailored to you.

4. Browse the web safely with Chrome

Safe Browsing in Chrome automatically protects you from malicious ads and warns you before you visit dangerous sites or download suspicious files. If you use Chrome, your password protections are automatically built-in. We’ll warn you if your username and password have been compromised in a known breach as you log into websites.

5. Check in on your privacy settings across your apps and devices

Data Privacy Day is a great time to check in on your privacy and security settings. Take a Privacy Checkup and we’ll walk you through key privacy settings step-by-step. You can do things like choose what data—such as your location and search history—gets saved to your Google Account or control what ads you see. When you’re finished, head over to Security Checkup for personalised recommendations to help protect your data and devices, like managing which third-party apps have access to your account data.

6. Control what ads you see from Google

We do not sell your personal information to anyone and give you transparency, choice and control over how your information is used. If you’re curious about why you’re seeing an ad, you can click on Why this ad for more information. If you no longer find a specific ad relevant, you can choose to block that ad by using the Mute this ad control. And you can always control the kinds of ads you see, or turn off ads personalisation any time in your Ad Settings.

No matter how you use our products, it’s our responsibility to keep your data private and secure. That’s why we work every day to build the best privacy experiences and strongest protections, and we’ll continue our ongoing efforts to make privacy and security simpler for you.


Post content Posted by Rahul Roy-Chowdhury, Vice President of Product, Privacy

Keeping you safe online is a top priority at Google, especially for the thousands of Googlers who work on privacy and security around the world. Today on Data Privacy Day, we’re sharing some of the many ways we keep you safe online and across our products—from built-in protections to easy tools that keep you in control of your privacy.

1. Keep your passwords safe

Password Manager in your Google Account helps you remember and securely store strong passwords for all your online accounts. With Password Checkup, one click will tell you if any of your passwords are weak—whether you’ve reused them across multiple sites, or if we've discovered they’ve been compromised in a third-party data breach—and we’ll give you the link to change them.

2. Let Google automatically delete your data

With auto-delete for Location History, Web & App Activity and YouTube History, you can choose to have Google automatically and continuously delete your activity and location history after 3 or 18 months. You can also control what data is saved in your account with easy on/off controls in your Google Account, and even delete your data by date, product and topic.

3. Use your favourite Google apps in Incognito mode

Incognito mode has been one of our most popular privacy controls since it launched with Chrome in 2008, and last year we added it to YouTube and Google Maps. Tap from your profile picture to easily turn it on or off. When you turn on Incognito mode in Maps, your activity—like the places you search or get directions to—won’t be saved to your Google Account. When you turn off Incognito mode, you’ll return to a personalised Google Maps experience with restaurant recommendations, information about your commute, and other features tailored to you.

4. Browse the web safely with Chrome

Safe Browsing in Chrome automatically protects you from malicious ads and warns you before you visit dangerous sites or download suspicious files. If you use Chrome, your password protections are automatically built-in. We’ll warn you if your username and password have been compromised in a known breach as you log into websites.

5. Check in on your privacy settings across your apps and devices

Data Privacy Day is a great time to check in on your privacy and security settings. Take a Privacy Checkup and we’ll walk you through key privacy settings step-by-step. You can do things like choose what data—such as your location and search history—gets saved to your Google Account or control what ads you see. When you’re finished, head over to Security Checkup for personalised recommendations to help protect your data and devices, like managing which third-party apps have access to your account data.

6. Control what ads you see from Google

We do not sell your personal information to anyone and give you transparency, choice and control over how your information is used. If you’re curious about why you’re seeing an ad, you can click on Why this ad for more information. If you no longer find a specific ad relevant, you can choose to block that ad by using the Mute this ad control. And you can always control the kinds of ads you see, or turn off ads personalisation any time in your Ad Settings.

No matter how you use our products, it’s our responsibility to keep your data private and secure. That’s why we work every day to build the best privacy experiences and strongest protections, and we’ll continue our ongoing efforts to make privacy and security simpler for you.


Post content Posted by Rahul Roy-Chowdhury, Vice President of Product, Privacy