Google makes it easier for users to track account activity

Google is to make it easier for users to track their use of its services by providing them with a monthly activity audit.

Users that sign up to Account Activity will get monthly reports on the number of emails sent and received to their Gmail accounts, the number of searches they conduct and even the most frequent queries they have submitted.

“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, on a blog announcing the service.

For example, if users see that their accounts have been accessed from a country they have not visited in the past month or via a device they do not own, they will be able to change their password or sign up for Google's two-step verification process, he added.

The service has been launched as Google grapples with unprecedented levels of user concern over the privacy afforded them by the search behemoth.

On 1 March, Google pressed ahead with controversial changes to its privacy policies, condensing 60 separate policies down to one all-encompassing policy.

That decision resulted in howls of protest from privacy campaigners and warnings from data watchdogs that the changes may breach European data protection laws.

Campaign group the Electronic Frontier Foundation urged Google's users to remove their search histories from Google prior to the privacy changes taking place, providing a step-by-step guide on how to do so.