At I/O 2023, Google announced several safety, security, and privacy updates across its consumer-facing products, including a spam folder in Drive.
Google Drive is adding a new “Spam” folder in the sidebar that “makes it easier to separate and review your files.” Similar to Gmail, Google will automatically classify content with spam and abusive content. You can also do this manually for any Drive, Docs, Sheets, Slides, Sites, and Forms file.
When an unsolicited file is moved to the spam folder, you will be unsubscribed, preventing all comment, sharing, and mobile push notifications for the file. Once unsubscribed, you will not be able to find the file anywhere in Drive outside of your spam folder.
After 30 days in the spam folder, it “will be permanently removed from your drive.” It’s available on the web, Android, iOS, and Drive for Desktop, with a rollout starting today for personal accounts and it’s coming later for Workspace.
Meanwhile, back in March, Google One gained dark web info monitoring for subscribers. That scanning is now coming to all Gmail IDs. As such, “anyone with a Gmail account in the U.S. will be able to run scans to see if your Gmail address appears.” If it does, you’ll get tips on what you can do. This feature will also soon get an international expansion.
In Maps, Google is letting users directly delete recent searches instead of having to go into “Web & App Activity.” Like in Google Search, just long-press on the query in the list.
About this result (and About this author) in Google Search is getting paired with “About this image.” Meant to “help you evaluate the reliability of visual content you find online,” this tool will note when an image (or similar ones) were first indexed by Google, where it may have first appeared, and where else it’s been seen online. The latter aspect can be used to see if it has previously been mentioned on a news, social, or fact checking site.
On the Android 14 front, permissions requests will note when an app “shares your information with 3rd parties for advertising purposes,” so that you have more context when deciding whether to approve or deny. This work joins “Data deletion” in the Google Play Data safety section.
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