“It’s a good idea to perform a security check-up regularly, and Google makes that easy”

This month I’m concentrating on one of the many pieces of reader feedback that reach me across multiple platforms. One of those platforms, ironically, being Gmail.

I say ironically as the reader in question wanted to know my opinion on just how secure the service was for personal use. Addressing that security question is easy: it’s as secure as the steps you take to secure your Google account, and your awareness of incoming risk, allow. The secondary question, which was how private it is, is somewhat more complicated and I’ll come to that momentarily.

For most people, Google account security comes down to two things. First, ensure you have a unique and strong password. As I always say at this point, a password manager is your friend here, both in creating that password and when required to use it. Second, switch two-factor authentication (2FA) on. I’d like to think that this was a given, but I’d be wrong. Very wrong.

I know it’s not Google, but Twitter recently published a transparency report () that revealed only 2.3% of active accounts have 2FA enabled, and