Today is Safer Internet Day. It is a day dedicated to reminding people to be safer and more responsible when using online technology. Until today, I hadn’t heard of it, but it is actually celebrating its 12th anniversary.

This year, Google is participating in the online security awareness event by offering 2GB of additional storage in Google Drive simply by performing a two-minute Security Checkup. This promotion goes until Feb. 17.

Google Security Checkup 1

The Security Checkup confirms your account recovery information so if there is suspicious activity and Google locks your account, you will be notified through the proper secondary channels.

You will also be able to see and validate your recent sign-in activity. If you see that a sign-in took place from an unknown computer or location, you can alert Google to that activity and they will check into it.

Google Security Checkup 2

The checkup will also ask you to confirm the apps and devices that you’ve given permission to access your information. I log into dozens of apps every day using my Google ID. Because I test apps, I regularly give permission to an app and then delete it a week later. This helps clear out old permissions.

Google Security Checkup 3

After you complete the checkup, you will be eligible for the free storage upgrade. Google will bump your capacity on our around Feb. 28. It will not happen right away. You will receive an email notification when Google upgrades your account.

Google Apps for Work and Google Apps for Education users are not eligible for the storage upgrade.

While the upgrade is a fantastic gift from Google, it is more important that we perform such security checks across all of our accounts and devices. Google’s promotion simply motivates us to take action.

Since today is Safer Internet Day, let’s all do something extra to secure our online identity. Then, do it more often in the future.

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14 replies on “Google gives away 2GB extra storage on Google Drive for Safer Internet Day”

  1. “…a day dedicated to reminding people to be safer and more responsible when using online technology.”

    And Google is trying to get your data in commemoration of Safe Internet Day? How ironic. And who came up with Safe Internet Day in the first place? Google?

    The safest thing you can do on Safe Internet Day is make darn sure your SIM card doesn’t get any near an Android “personal information harvester”.

  2. Saving things in the cloud, Google and safety are oxymora. They exist to sell you out from under your clothing. Anything for a $. This is just their marketing spin to lull in the weak. Who stores their important stuff in the CLOUD anyhow?

    1. Depends on your definition of important:

      Important == Must be Secret : no, the cloud is not the appropriate place for secrets.

      Important == Must not be lost : having one more copy of something isn’t bad, but the cloud is not an appropriate backup solution (personally, I have everything that fits this category also backed up in offsite hardrives).

      Important == Need access to it from anywhere, at anytime, anyplace, from any device : This is what the cloud is good for. My coding projects. My presentations. My written works. My wedding photos (I like to show them off to people). My music collection. Stuff that’s not secret, and I have backed up elsewhere, but that I want to always have access to. And if it goes down, then I’m just back where I started to begin with so it’s no big loss.

        1. Why shouldn’t he be? Random hackers aren’t interested in a bunch of personal source code projects, and neither is Google. There have been cases where hackers have gone after specific projects (usually for things like highly anticipated video games) but you would know if that something you have to be wary of.

          In any case, it’s easy to use strong encryption when backing up to the cloud with something like Duplicati. If you’re not sure, encrypt everything before you put it on the cloud.

    2. Sorry, but that’s hysterical nonsense. Google doesn’t sell your personal information to anyone, it’s way to valuable for them to do that. They make money by selling services (i.e. targeted ads) using the information they have gathered on Google users. If you’re uncomfortable with Google knowing anything about you, then you don’t have to use their services.

      1. Unless you have an Android phone and you want to be able to sync your calendar and contacts data for example with a desktop computer. Then you pretty much don’t have a choice other than using Google accounts and services. Unless there is a way to circumvent the Google account requirement, I may have purchased my last Android phone.

        1. You may use any CalDAV calendar and CardDAV contact server with Google built in Calendar and Contacts applications. Install OwnCloud on your server and just configure your Android phone to use it.

        2. If you hate, despise, and distrust Google so much, then why did you ever buy an Android phone in the first place? Even if you didn’t have to use a Google account on the phone, Google still owns Android so it must be just as evil as they are. Personally, I have yet to detect a single instance of anything detrimental that Google has done to me and I use many of their services heavily. Just because I see some targeted ads, and I understand why I am seeing them, I don’t feel like I have been somehow victimized by Google.

          1. My first Android phone didn’t annoy me. So when it was time to get a new phone (old one was literally physically falling apart) I did not hesitate to buy another Android phone. But Google has changed things recently and it isn’t the same. There are annoyances on the new phone that were not present on the old one. So it wasn’t until after I got the new phone that I started getting annoyed with Google. Hope that answers part of your question.

          2. Fair enough. Though I can’t help but wonder how much of the stuff that annoys you now was added by the manufacturer and your carrier. Personally, I am far more pleased with stock Lollipop on my Nexus 7 and KitKat on my near stock Moto G than I ever was with my first droid, an LG Optimus V with Froyo, and my second droid, a Samsung Galaxy Victory with Jellybean. On both those older phones there were frustrations with manufacturer and carrier additions like Touchwiz and unremovable bloatware.

          3. Optimus V was my first Android phone. I flashed CM7 and it was a good phone for a while. Currently have the LG Optimus F3. Much better hardware but limited to only 1GB storage. I’m trying to figure out how to get a custom ROM on the F3.

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