Gmail messages Archives

When I go to my Gmail account, mainly to clear out existing email, I always click on or open the Details link in the lower right. Sometimes, I see a “Sign out of other sessions” link so I can click on this to supposedly sign out any other session. So my question is: why do I see this and what “paranoid rating” (for lack of a better word) do I give this? I use basically three options for checking my email. One is using Mailwasher Pro, the second is using Thunderbird, and the third is using Firefox and going to Gmail.

Let me start by explaining this feature. If you have a Gmail account and you log in, there’s a link in the lower right corner that either reads “The latest activity was # minutes ago” or “Open in # of other places” followed by a Details link.

When you click the link, Gmail opens an Activity Information window which displays what the access type was, what the IP address was, and the date of the access. For instance, if I was logged into Gmail and opened the Activity Information window, I’d see that I’m accessing it from my IP address, which is somewhere in the United States.

This is really neat feature – one that can ultimately protect your Gmail account from hackers.