How to manage personal information for your Google account

In the name of security, make sure the information displayed on your Google account is limited. Jack Wallen shows you how.

Did you know that you can control what information people can see from your Google account? The wrong information in the right hands could be a security problem. From within your Google account you might want to show your name and your profile picture, but you might not want to show your gender, your age, or your work email.

You might also want to add contributor links and allow them to be seen by all. The good news is that Google makes it pretty easy for you to manage who can see what information from your Google account, that way when you collaborate with others, or use your Google account to post on third-party sites, other users are only able to view the information you want them to see.

But how do you manage this?

Let me show you.

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How to manage personal information for a Google account

Open a web browser and make sure you’re signed in with your Google account.
Go to myaccount.google.com/profile. On this page, you’ll see all of the information you’ve added for your Google account.
Note: You’ll notice two different icons associated with each piece of information: A lock icon or a shared icon. If you see a lock icon, it means only you can view that information; a share icon means anyone can see the data. To change this, click the icon in question and the lock will switch to a share (or vice versa).
To add a new piece of information, click the Add button under each section for Contact Info, More About You, or Work & Education. When adding a new piece of information, make sure to select it to be private or public by clicking either Only You or Anyone in the creation window.

And that’s really all there is to managing your personal information on your Google account. You should make the effort to go through this data to ensure your Google account isn’t displaying information to the world you don’t want said world to see. Trust me when I say, managing that information will be time well spent.

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