HAVE YOU REALLY SIGNED OUT?
Make sure hackers can’t use your… Password
Have you ever left the house only to be tormented by the niggling worry that you’ve forgotten to turn the oven off or lock your front door? While it may be far from convenient, you can always return home to check and alleviate your anxiety. But what if the knot in your stomach has to do with one of your online accounts?
What happens, for example, if you’ve been to a friend’s house and logged on to your email account using their computer, or if you popped to the library and used one of its public PCS to access your Facebook account, and you get the sinking feeling that you forgot to click the logout button? Here we explain how to remotely sign out of the most popular online accounts, so you can log in wherever you want with complete peace of mind.
EMAIL Gmail
For reasons known only to Google, Gmail’s remote sign out button is burried at the very bottom of its main window. Scroll down past all your emails, and in the bottom-right of the window you’ll see the ‘Last account activity’ section. Click Details just below it to open Gmail’s ‘Activity on this device’ screen. To sign out of Gmail on every device, click the ‘Sign out of all other web sessions’ button (see screenshot above).
Don’t close the window just yet though, because there are a few other interesting nuggets here. If you look at the table just below the ‘Sign out of all other web sessions’ button, you’ll see details of all the recent activity associated with your Gmail account. The Access Type column tells you whether your account has been accessed through a browser, a mobile phone or tablet or an email client such as Outlook, Thunderbird or em Client. The Location column tells you from which country each of these connections is being made, and the final column lists the time and date the connection was last active. Using this information you can determine whether your Gmail account has been accessed by someone other than you.
If you suspect that someone else is accessing your Gmail account, we suggest you click the ‘Sign out of all other web sessions’ button, then immediately change your Gmail password. To do this, go back to your Gmail account, click the Settings cog in the top-right, Settings, the ‘Accounts and Import’ tab then ‘Change password’, and follow the instructions.
Yahoo Mail
Yahoo offers similar remote sign-out options to Gmail’s but, as you’d expect, they’re in a completely different location. To find them, open your Yahoo Mail account, click the Settings cog (at the top right), followed by ‘Account info’ and ‘Recent activity’ (on the left). Here you’ll see a list of all the devices that have recently logged into your Yahoo account. Click ‘sign out’ next to each entry to log off remotely. The information here shows you where and when each device accessed your Yahoo Mail account. If any of the instances listed were definitely not you, click ‘Change your password’ at the top of the page.
When you sign into your Outlook.com email account, you also sign into your entire Microsoft account. To log out of any device, head to https://.account.microsoft. com/devices. Here you’ll find a list of all devices that are currently logged in. Click ‘More actions’ under a device’s name, then Remove PC (or laptop, phone or tablet and so on – see screenshot above left). This will stop that device automatically signing into Microsoft’s programs, including Outlook, Skype and Onedrive. You’ll have to re-enter your password on any PC you’ve removed to sign back into these programs.
SOCIAL Whatsapp
Whatsapp Web lets you send and read your Whatsapp chats on a PC. If you’ve never tried it, go to https://web.whatsapp.com on your PC and scan the QR code that appears using Whatsapp on your phone – tap the three vertical dots (top right) to open the menu, then tap Whatsapp Web, and a scanner should open in Whatsapp. Hold your phone up to the QR code as if taking a photo of it, and Whatsapp will open in your browser. You can open Whatsapp on as many PCS as you want by tapping the three dots, Whatsapp Web, then the ‘+’ symbol in the top right. To log out remotely, tap the three dots, Whatsapp Web, tap the name of the PC you want to log out, then click Log Out (see screenshot below left).
If you’re visiting friends and want to show them what you’ve been up to, it’s often easiest just to log into your Facebook account on their PC to show them your photos. If you’re worried that you forgot to log out, you can check by signing into Facebook on your own PC. Once done, click the down arrow at the top right (to the right of the question mark), select Settings, click ‘Security and Login’ on the left, then click See More within the Where You’re Logged In section. This shows you every PC, tablet and mobile phone on which your account is signed in. To log off any device in the list, click the three vertical dots next to its entry, then click Log out (see screenshot above right).
SHOPPING Amazon
Your shopping accounts are just as much of a worry as your email and social-media accounts. After all, you wouldn’t want somebody to order goods from your account, accidentally or otherwise. Amazon doesn’t have a particularly sophisticated system, but changing your Amazon password will log you out of any device that doesn’t use the new password. To change your password, go to www.amazon.co.uk and log in. Click Your Account (at the top right), ‘Login & security’, scroll down to the Password section, then click the Edit button (on the right). Doing this will also log you out of any Prime services – such as Amazon Video and Music (see box, right, for other entertainment services).
Ebay & Paypal
Ebay lets you see the devices that have accessed your account, but it’s almost impossible to find the page without the direct link. Go to www.
snipca.com/24442 and sign in with your username and password. You’ll see a list all of the devices currently signed into your account. Click ‘Sign out’ next to any entry to log it out, or click ‘Sign out from all of them’ at the top of the list to do exactly that.
Paypal is the online payment site used for most ebay transactions. To log out of it remotely, go to www. paypal.com and log in, then click the Cog icon at the top right, followed by Security, and click Update to the right of ‘Stay logged in for faster purchases’. We suggest you click ‘Turn off One Touch on all devices’ to ensure that the only way anyone can access your Paypal account is to use your username and password.