Gmail’s anti-malware, soon to be activated in Docs, Sheets and Slides

Google took advantage of its I/O 2022 developer conference to present a series of new functions related to security and data protection. On the security side, the main novelty is the generalization of anti-malware and anti-phishing protection within the Workspace range. Malicious codes and links were already detected in Gmail. Now they will also be in the Docs word processor, the Sheets spreadsheet and the Slides viewer.

This is not surprising, because with the increase in the number of remote workers, hackers have adapted and developed more and more attack scenarios based on infected shared documents.
Opening such a file should therefore soon generate alerts similar to those already known on Gmail. This new layer of protection will be enabled for all Google Workspace users by the end of the year.

On the data protection side, Google will add two new control tools. The first will allow you to easily delete search engine results when they contain your contact data: telephone numbers, postal addresses, e-mail addresses. This procedure will be accessible within a few months in the Google mobile app, as well as through the three dots located near each individual search result.

The second tool is a new panel called “My Ad Center” which makes it easier to configure personalized ads that are displayed in search or on YouTube. The user will be able to completely disable them — which will not remove the ads, but will make them less targeted. He will also be able to configure in detail the subjects that interest him. The tool will be available by the end of the year.

Finally, Google continues to develop advanced techniques to protect personal data, such as federated learning or differential privacy. All these new techniques will now be brought together under the name “Protected Computing”. The idea is to promote local data processing as much as possible and to apply de-anonymization procedures.

Source : Google