Cybersecurity requires continual vigilance, whether it's using built-in protections, or providing resources for changing security threats. In acknowledgement of Cybersecurity Awareness Month, we wanted to share our progress across a number of security efforts, and announce a few new technologies that help us keep more people safe online than anyone else.

Continuing our efforts to keep you safer online

In the past year, we’ve worked on various security upgrades, from making sign-ins easier and more secure, to spreading awareness of specific threats. Recently, we shared our experiences from the last decade of building a world-class security operation with a behind the scenes look at our elite security teams in the new HACKING GOOGLE docuseries. Now, we’re building on our work by providing educational resources.

Today, we’re officially launching the online safety lessons we announced earlier this year. The lessons feature Khan Academy founder, Sal Khan, and Google security experts, giving actionable tips to help keep your online accounts secure, browse the web safely, detect phishing attempts and more. Whether you’re a professional, parent, grandparent or student, these videos — and Khan Academy's Internet Safety course — will help you stay safer even as new security risks emerge online.

For years, we’ve been at the forefront of improvements to authentication technology, and earlier this year we shared the progress we’ve made on our Google Password Manager in Android and Chrome, and how we’re accelerating industry-wide progress toward a passwordless future. Today, we’re announcing the next stage in this journey with the release of passkey support for developers on Android and Chrome. General availability for everyone using Android 9 and higher will follow later in November. This is a critical step in the wide adoption of passkeys, which will work with your Google Password Manager to further simplify sign-ins across devices, websites and applications — no matter the platform. The best part? Instead of typing a password, you can sign in with whatever method you usually use to unlock your phone (passcode, fingerprint, facial recognition, etc.).

Partnering to protect high-risk users

With the U.S. midterm elections quickly approaching, we’re continuing to protect high-risk users, like journalists and campaigns, through our security tools and partnerships. Our Campaign Security Project with Defending Digital Campaigns provides organizations across the political spectrum with tools and resources to train candidates and campaign workers on how to stay safe online. To date, the program has trained over 5,300 election-related stakeholders over the course of 52 training sessions and workshops around the country — allowing us to better protect these high-risk individuals amid a changing threat landscape.

We’re also continuing to help protect democracies on a global scale by collaborating with leading organizations like the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES). This collaboration helps high-risk users enhance their cybersecurity with the Advanced Protection Program (APP), our strongest form of account security for those at risk of state sponsored attacks. We’ve also continued to donateGoogle Titan Security Keys to high-risk organizations and individuals, which can be used as a form of 2-Step Verification (2SV) for advanced account security.

Products that keep you secure by default

For security to be effective, it has to be easy, which is why most of our protections are built-in and automatic. For example, Google Play Protect provides automatic, daily malware scanning on all the apps on your Android device, even when you're offline. And our 2-Step Verification (2SV) requires just one tap to create secure, verified access to your account. Now Google is making it even easier to enroll in 2SV and get security notifications:

• 2SV enrollment with Google Assistant: Simply ask, “Hey Google, how do I set up 2-Step Verification?” If you’re not enrolled, Assistant will even remind you to sign up when you ask privacy and security questions, such as, “Hey Google, how do you keep my data safe?" We’re also making it easier to apply software updates — a critical step in securing your devices — by enabling auto updates via Google Home.
• Safety status: To further strengthen the security of your account, we’re making safety status on your Google Account easily visible as part of your profile picture across the apps you use every day. If anything on your account needs security attention, you’ll know right away. A simple yellow or red alert will highlight actions you should take to secure your account, so you never have to worry about missing a critical security update again.
• Safety Insights: We’re rolling out a feature in the Google app for iOS that gives you site-specific safety information — including a description of the cookies used by the site, alerts for unsecure sites and soon, reminders for passwords that may have been compromised. You can also access the “Results about you” tool, which allows you to request the removal of search results that contain your personal contact information (i.e., phone number, home address, email address) from search results.

Keeping your connections private and secure

We build our products with your privacy and security in mind. That’s why our latest Nest cameras and doorbells are designed for your security: They use encrypted video, 2SV, and the enhanced security of your Google Account. And today, we’re announcing that if you have a Pixel 4 or more recent model that uses Android 12 or above, your mobile traffic on the Google Fi cellular network is automatically encrypted and private.

As we continue into Cybersecurity Awareness Month, stay tuned for more updates — from keeping the upcoming elections safer, to moving us further into a passwordless world. Visit our Safety Center to stay up to date and learn more about how we’re making every day safer with Google.

Every day, we work to create a safer internet by making our products secure by default, private by design, and putting you in control of your data. This is how we keep more people safe online than anyone else in the world.

Secure by default in the face of cyber threats

Today, more cyberattacks than ever are happening on a broader, global scale. The targets of these attacks are not just major companies or government agencies, but hospitals, energy providers, banks, schools and individuals. Every day, we keep people’s data safe and secure through industry-leading security technology, automatic, built-in protections, and ongoing vulnerability research and detection.

Our specialized teams work around the clock to combat current and emerging cyber threats. Google’s Threat Analysis Group (TAG), for example, has been tracking critical cyber activity to help inform Ukraine, neighboring countries in Europe, and others of active threat campaigns in relation to the war. We’ve also expanded our support for Project Shield to protect the websites of 200+ Ukrainian government entities, news outlets and more.

Cybersecurity concerns are not limited to war zones — more than 80% of Americans say they’re concerned about the safety and privacy of their online data. That’s why we built one of the world’s most advanced security infrastructures to ensure that our products are secure by default. Now, that infrastructure helps keep people safer at scale:

• Account Safety Status: We’re adding your safety status to your apps so you never have to worry about the security of your Google Account. These updates will feature a simple yellow alert icon on your profile picture that will flag actions you should take to secure your account.

• Phishing protections in Google Workspace: We’re now scaling the phishing and malware protections that guard Gmail to Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides.
• Automatic 2-Step Verification: We’re also continuing our journey towards a more secure, passwordless future with 2-Step Verification (2SV) auto enrollment to help people instantly boost the security of their Google Accounts and reduce their risk of getting phished. This builds on our work last year to auto enroll 150+ million accounts in 2SV and successfully reduce account takeovers.
• Virtual Cards: As people do more shopping online, keeping payment information safe and secure is critically important. We’re launching virtual cards on Chrome and Android. When you use autofill to enter your payment details at checkout, virtual cards will add an additional layer of security by replacing your actual card number with a distinct, virtual number. This eliminates the need to manually enter card details like the CVV at checkout, and they’re easy to manage atpay.google.com — where you can enable the feature for eligible cards, access your virtual card number, and see recent virtual card transactions. Virtual cards will be rolling out in the US for Visa, American Express, Mastercard and all Capital One cards starting this summer.

Helpful products that are private by design

We’re committed to designing products that are helpful and protect people’s privacy. Our engineers have pioneered and open-sourced numerous privacy preserving technologies, including Federated Learning and Differential Privacy, which we made more widely available earlier this year when we started offering our Differential Privacy library in Python as a free open-source tool — reaching almost half of developers worldwide.

Now, we’re expanding this work with the introduction of Protected Computing, a growing toolkit of technologies that transform how, when, and where data is processed to technically ensure the privacy and safety of your data. We do this by:

• Minimizing your data footprint: Leveraging techniques like edge processing and ephemerality, we shrink the amount of your personally identifiable data.
• De-identifying data: Through blurring and randomizing identifiable signals, to adding statistical noise, we use a range of anonymization techniques to strip your identity from your data.
• Restricting access: Through technologies like end-to-end encryption and secure enclaves, we make it technically impossible for anyone, including Google, to access your sensitive data.

Today, Protected Computing enables helpful features like Smart Reply in Messages by Google and Live Translation on Pixel. And while we’re continuing to innovate new applications across our products, we’re equally focused on using Protected Computing to unlock the potential of data to benefit society more broadly — for example, by enabling even more robust aggregated and anonymized datasets so we can safely do everything from help cities reduce their carbon footprint, to accelerate new medical breakthroughs.

You’re in control of your personal information

Privacy is personal, and safety is a bit different for each individual. That’s why our privacy and security protections are easy to access, monitor and control. Today, we’re introducing two new tools that give you even more control over your data:

• Results about you in Search: When you’re using the internet, it’s important to have control over how your personal information can be found. With our new tool to accompany updated removal policies, people can more easily request the removal of Google Search results containing their contact details — such as phone numbers, home addresses, and email addresses. This feature will be available in the coming months in the Google App, and you can also access it by clicking the three dots next to individual Google Search results.

• My Ad Center: We want to make it even easier for you to control the ads you see. Towards the end of this year, we’ll launch more controls for your ads privacy settings: a way of choosing which brands to see more or less of, and an easier way to choose whether to personalize your ads. My Ad Center gives you even more control over the ads you see on YouTube, Search, and your Discover feed, while still being able to block and report ads. You’ll be able to choose the types of ads you want to see — such as fitness, vacation rentals or skincare — and learn more about the information we use to show them to you.

To learn more about how every day you're safer with Google, visit our Safety Center.

Keeping you safer online is at the heart of everything we do. On Safer Internet Day, we’re sharing updates on this work and some significant new partnerships. We’re also announcing our strongest protections to date for high risk users and groups, and new enhanced browsing security for everyone.

Helping you learn how to stay safe online

We’re partnering with Khan Academy, a non-profit educational organization, to develop free, online lessons that will help teach people how to stay safe online. We’ll contribute $5 million so that Khan Academy can create accessible, easy to understand and actionable online safety content for its 18 million monthly users around the globe. Last year alone, searches for “how to stop identity theft" spiked over 110%, so we know people are looking for tips on how to protect themselves online. Our previous work in educating people about online safety has shown us the positive impact this can have. To expand our impact, we’re excited to be partnering with Khan Academy to make internet safety more accessible for everyone.

Keeping your information safe

We provide easy, simple-to-use tools like Security Checkup to give you actionable recommendations on how to strengthen the security of your Google Account. In 2021, people took more than 1.5 billion Security Checkups, and we hope to see that number grow in 2022. In 2021, we enrolled over 150 million people in two-step verification (2SV). As a result of this effort, we have seen a 50% decrease in accounts being compromised.

Today we are announcing:

• More protection for high risk users: We are the first-choice for high risk users like election workers, journalists, and human rights workers. Ahead of the upcoming 2022 U.S. midterm elections, we’re expanding our efforts to protect these high risk users. We’ve teamed up with organizations across the political spectrum to establish the Campaign Security Project, providing organizations with the tools to train candidates and campaign workers on how to stay safe online. Groups include the Veterans Campaign, Collective Future, Women’s Public Leadership Network, LGBTQ Victory Institute,Center for American Ideas, University of San Francisco, Emerge, Latino Victory and more. This will build on our ongoing work with Defending Digital Campaigns, USC Election Cybersecurity Initiative and Cybersecurity for State Leaders.
  
  Globally, we’re also working with organizations like the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) to help enhance the security of campaigns and affiliated high risk users. As always, we encourage all high risk users to enroll in our free Advanced Protection Program, which bundles the strongest Google Account security options together, and proactively protects against new and evolving threats.

• Introducing Account Level Enhanced Safe Browsing: Coming next month, you will be able to opt in to Google’s account-level enhanced safe browsing feature - which provides our broadest security protection against threats you encounter on the web and against your Google Account. Soon you will be able to turn this setting on when you take a Security Checkup or manually in your account settings.

Putting you in control

You should have control over your data. That’s why we build tools like Privacy Checkup that put you in the driver’s seat with helpful reminders of what activity is being saved, which third-party apps have permission to access your data, and the option to adjust your settings accordingly with simple controls.

We’re also introducing new product features, and expanding current ones, to give you more control and keep you safe online:

• Google Assistant: Building on our launch ofGuest Mode, an easy way to control your privacy by saying "Hey Google, turn on Guest Mode," we're expanding this feature in 9 new languages in the coming months for global availability on Smart Displays and speakers, like Nest Hub Max and Nest Audio. While in Guest Mode, these devices won’t save your Assistant activity to your Google Account and won’t show personal results, like your calendar entries or contacts, until you exit the mode. This helps keep your personal information private while others are around your shared device. If you ask Assistant to interact with other apps and services, they might still save that activity or provide personalized results.

• Google One: When we launched the VPN by Google One for Android, we wanted to give subscribers an extra layer of online protection and a safer connection, no matter what carrier you’re on. To bring protection to even more people, we are rolling out the VPN to iOS devices. Similar to Android, the VPN will be available to Google One members on Premium plans (2 TB and higher) through the Google One app on iOS.

• Google Fi: If you have a Google Fi phone plan, soon you’ll have the option to start sharing your location with your family members when you’re on the go in real-time right from the Fi app — at no extra cost. Your family members can choose to share their location for a set period of time, until the setting is turned off, or not at all.

Safer Internet Day might come around once a year, but here at Google we want you to stay safe online every day. Visit our Safety Center to learn all the ways we’re making every day safer with Google.

Every day, we focus on making sure you’re in control of your data by building products that are secure by default and private by design. At this year’s I/O, we’re introducing new features and technologies to keep you safer with Google.

Putting you in control of your data

Privacy is personal. That's why we make it easy for you to choose thesettings that are right for you — whether that’s one place to manage settings in your Google Account, Auto-Delete options, or controls that appear in context when you’re using our products. We announced a number of new controls today: 

• Quick delete in Search.We’re introducing a new, “quick delete” option to delete the last 15 minutes of your Search history with a single tap from the Google Account Menu.
• A passcode protected Locked Folder in Photos.Have you ever handed your phone to show someone a photo, but worried they might scroll to a personal or sensitive image — like a photo of your passport or a surprise gift? “Locked Folder” is a new feature in Google Photos —  a passcode-protected space where select photos can be saved separately. These photos won’t show up as you scroll through your grid or in shared albums. This feature is coming to Google Pixels first, and more Android devices throughout the year.
  
• Location History reminders in your Maps Timeline.Now, when you see places you've visited in your Timeline, we'll remind you that it's because you turned on Location History — which you can easily turn off right there in your Timeline.
  

We’re also introducing new, industry-leading transparency and permission features on Android 12. The new OS includes a Privacy Dashboard where you will see a timeline of when apps accessed your camera, microphone, or device location. We’ve also added indicators that show when your camera or microphone are in use, as well as easy toggles to disable access to both across your device. And you can now choose to share your approximate location with an app instead of a precise one. 

Building products that are secure by default

One of the biggest security risks is still the continued reliance on passwords — they’re often easy to crack, used across multiple sites, or stolen in phishing attacks. That’s why we’ve been working towards a password-free future — focusing on safer ways to authenticate your identity and building multiple layers of protection into your Google Account, like automatic enrollment in 2-step verification.

But because passwords are still required for most online accounts, we’ve also continued to improve our Password Manager, built directly into Chrome, Android and now iOS, to help you create, remember, save and auto-fill passwords across the web. Today, we announced new enhancements to Password Manager:

• A new tool that makes it easy to import passwords from other password managers.
  
• Deeper integrations with Chrome and Android to seamlessly fill your passwords across sites and apps, regardless of whether you’re on desktop or on mobile.
  
• Password Alerts that automatically warn you if we detect one of your saved passwords has been compromised via a third party breach.
  
• A smart way to fix compromised passwords in Chrome with a simple tap. For supported sites and apps, whenever Password Manager finds a password that may have been compromised, you’ll see a "change password" button from Assistant. When you tap the button, the Assistant will not only navigate to the site, but also go through the entire process of changing your password. This feature is available on Android devices and will be rolling out to more sites and apps in the future.
  

Making our products private by design

Now, we’re continuing that work with Android's Private Compute Core, which keeps your information safe and private for a number of popular AI-driven features like Live Caption (which displays captions based on audio), Now Playing (which tells you the song that’s playing) and Smart Reply (which suggests short responses to messages and emails). For these features, the audio and language processing happens exclusively on your device. Like the rest of Android, Private Compute Core is open source — it’s fully inspectable and verifiable by the security community.

We’ll continue our work to make every day safer with Google with new controls, advanced security, and privacy-preserving technologies.

Every day, we focus on making sure you’re in control of your data by building products that are secure by default and private by design. At this year’s I/O, we’re introducing new features and technologies to keep you safer with Google.

Putting you in control of your data

Privacy is personal. That's why we make it easy for you to choose thesettings that are right for you — whether that’s one place to manage settings in your Google Account, Auto-Delete options, or controls that appear in context when you’re using our products. We announced a number of new controls today: 

• Quick delete in Search.We’re introducing a new, “quick delete” option to delete the last 15 minutes of your Search history with a single tap from the Google Account Menu.
• A passcode protected Locked Folder in Photos.Have you ever handed your phone to show someone a photo, but worried they might scroll to a personal or sensitive image — like a photo of your passport or a surprise gift? “Locked Folder” is a new feature in Google Photos —  a passcode-protected space where select photos can be saved separately. These photos won’t show up as you scroll through your grid or in shared albums. This feature is coming to Google Pixels first, and more Android devices throughout the year.
  
• Location History reminders in your Maps Timeline.Now, when you see places you've visited in your Timeline, we'll remind you that it's because you turned on Location History — which you can easily turn off right there in your Timeline.
  

We’re also introducing new, industry-leading transparency and permission features on Android 12. The new OS includes a Privacy Dashboard where you will see a timeline of when apps accessed your camera, microphone, or device location. We’ve also added indicators that show when your camera or microphone are in use, as well as easy toggles to disable access to both across your device. And you can now choose to share your approximate location with an app instead of a precise one. 

Building products that are secure by default

One of the biggest security risks is still the continued reliance on passwords — they’re often easy to crack, used across multiple sites, or stolen in phishing attacks. That’s why we’ve been working towards a password-free future — focusing on safer ways to authenticate your identity and building multiple layers of protection into your Google Account, like automatic enrollment in 2-step verification.

But because passwords are still required for most online accounts, we’ve also continued to improve our Password Manager, built directly into Chrome, Android and now iOS, to help you create, remember, save and auto-fill passwords across the web. Today, we announced new enhancements to Password Manager:

• A new tool that makes it easy to import passwords from other password managers.
  
• Deeper integrations with Chrome and Android to seamlessly fill your passwords across sites and apps, regardless of whether you’re on desktop or on mobile.
  
• Password Alerts that automatically warn you if we detect one of your saved passwords has been compromised via a third party breach.
  
• A smart way to fix compromised passwords in Chrome with a simple tap. For supported sites and apps, whenever Password Manager finds a password that may have been compromised, you’ll see a "change password" button from Assistant. When you tap the button, the Assistant will not only navigate to the site, but also go through the entire process of changing your password. This feature is available on Android devices and will be rolling out to more sites and apps in the future.
  

Making our products private by design

Now, we’re continuing that work with Android's Private Compute Core, which keeps your information safe and private for a number of popular AI-driven features like Live Caption (which displays captions based on audio), Now Playing (which tells you the song that’s playing) and Smart Reply (which suggests short responses to messages and emails). For these features, the audio and language processing happens exclusively on your device. Like the rest of Android, Private Compute Core is open source — it’s fully inspectable and verifiable by the security community.

We’ll continue our work to make every day safer with Google with new controls, advanced security, and privacy-preserving technologies.