Google’s New “Account Activity” Lets You See Exactly What You’re Doing Online

Google has just unveiled a new beta feature that they say will help users “step back and take stock of what you’re doing online.” It’s called Account Activity, and everyone with a Google account can go opt-in right now.

Today we’re introducing Account Activity, a new feature in your Google Account. If you sign up, each month we’ll send you a link to a password-protected report with insights into your signed-in use of Google services.

For example, my most recent Account Activity report told me that I sent 5 percent more email than the previous month and received 3 percent more. An Italian hotel was my top Gmail contact for the month. I conducted 12 percent more Google searches than in the previous month, and my top queries reflected the vacation I was planning: [rome] and [hotel].

Your Account Activity report will not only feature your email stats and top search queries. The report also tells you stuff like places visited via Google Latitude, and authentication stats like number of connected sites, apps and services.

Once you opt-in, Google might tell you that it will take a couple of days to generate the report. I received a report within a few minutes of opting-in. The email will contain a link to your report (about a 1-month span) and look like this:

Google points out that the Account Activity report also includes a list of account sign-in locations, browsers, and platforms. So if you see that your Google account has been accessed from Bangladesh with an iPad, and you’ve never been there or don’t own an iPad, you can know it’s about time to change that password. After Google’s recent privacy policy changes, any sort of transparency regarding account activity has to be a welcome sight for users.