Yesterday was Safer Internet Day, and to help netizens celebrate the obscure tech holiday, Google has decided that it’s a great time to give away some free cloud storage space.
The tech company announced via blog post that it will again afford its users a 2-gigabyte upgrade to their existing Google Drive storage, and all you have to do is perform a two-minute security check.
Here’s how to get the free space increase:
1.) Begin securing your account by clicking on the Security Checkup link. You will probably need to re-enter your Google password.
2.) On the Recovery Information screen, make sure both your recovery phone and recovery email address are up to date. Google will use these details to contact you should anything suspicious happen to your Google account.
Jam Kotenko/Google
3.) Next, make sure the items listed under Connected Devices are gadgets that you actually use to log on to your Google account. If you recently upgraded to a new phone or laptop, now would be a good time to remove old devices from the list.
Jam Kotenko/Google
Additionally, you can click on the drop-down arrow per device if you’d like to find out the last browsers used to log into your Google account as well as locations they were accessed.
Jam Kotenko/Google
4.) If you’ve ever used your Google account to create an account on an app or a website, it should be listed on the next screen. Make sure only the ones that you are still currently using are still on the list and click on the drop-down arrow to review what sort of information the app or website has permission to access. If something seems unfamiliar, be safe and just remove it from the queue.
Jam Kotenko/Google
5.) Google has the ability to generate passwords for apps that you use that don’t have 2-step verification enabled. If there’s anything on this list that you no longer use, revoke access to it.
Jam Kotenko/Google
6.) Make sure your 2-step verification settings are up to date. If you don’t have it enabled, now would be a great time to consider doing so. You can choose to use a Google Authenticator app (which works even when your phone data is off), a backup phone number, or a printed or downloaded backup code to verify a login attempt.
Jam Kotenko/Google
Once you’re done going through all the steps, you should see a page confirming the additional 2GB Google Drive storage added onto your account.
Jam Kotenko/Google
You can perform the Security Checkup and acquire the space freebie on all your Google accounts (in case you have more than one), with the exception of Google Apps for Work or Google Apps for Education accounts. Also note that in order to receive the bump, you will need to complete the process by February 11, 2016.
