Indian users now more conscious about online safety: Google

Internet major rolling out several initiatives to drive online security, to give 2GB of additional online storage

At a time when the government is pushing the ‘Digital India’ campaign, and the focus of both content creators and consumers is shifting squarely to the online medium, users in India are not ready to compromise security. In view of this, Google India on Wednesday announced its support to a ‘Safer Internet Day’. In its commitment to providing its consumers a safer internet experience, the company rolled out some new features and resources designed to protect users online.

From initiatives like simplifying security settings to making trustworthy messages easier to spot in Gmail, Google will be taking several initiatives to drive awareness about online safety among Indian internet users.

“With an increase in the number of users coming online and a rise in the number of smartphone users in India, we at Google are committed to offering users a safe internet experience. We are adding five million new users a month, and expecting a base of 500 million ‘connected’ Indians by 2018-2019. It’s more important now than ever to ensure the data and profiles of these users are safe online,” said Sunita Mohanty, director (trust and safety), Google India.

Google Trends shows people in India have become increasingly conscious about their online safety, especially around the security of their online accounts, reports the company. In the past year, there have been 20 per cent more searches for “change password” and 97 per cent more searches for “two-step verification”.

Also, in the past year, there have been 591 per cent more searches for “how to track a lost phone”.

In its initiative to spread awareness and encourage users to utilise the existing tools to ensure a safer internet experience, Google is offering 2GB of extra Google Drive storage, on completion of the security check-up by February 11.

Last year, Google launched some initiatives to spread awareness about safe surfing practices (Web Rangers) and counter cyber threats, in partnership with Consumer Voice.