Personal Level Indicators
Gmail’s Personal Level Indicators, when activated, will help you quickly determine if a message was addressed to you, a group, or a mailing list. A single arrow (>) appears next to a message when it is sent to you, and a group of others. Double arrows (>>) indicate that a message is addressed only to you. Arrows won’t appear next to messages sent to a mailing list.
Enabling this option is easy. Simply go to “Settings”, and in the “General” tab – “Personal Level Indicators” select “Show Indicators”. Be sure to save your changes.
As the following screen shot shows, three of these four messages have been sent to me, only. While one message has been sent to a group. My response to these messages was guided by who, other than me, received the same message.
Activity on this account monitor
One of the many reasons I’ve stuck with Gmail as my primary email service all this time is, the alert service Google provides in Gmail. The “Last account activity: … minutes ago at this IP..” alert. This applet can be activated from its position directly below the message pane.
Just as I monitor my open connections while on the Internet, I also scan the account activity alert frequently, while logged in to Gmail. In June of this year, this monitoring habit saved me from untold misery following a hack by Nigerian cyber crooks.
Since I was able to jump on this penetration immediately, I recovered my Gmail account on the spot, without having to jump through all the hoops Google sets out for those unlucky enough to lose control of their account.
Screen shot of a “clean” activity report. I have blanked out potions of this report for privacy purposes.
Screen shot indicating my account has been hacked from Nigeria.
Google offers an excellent tutorial on “Last account activity”, and I urge you to check it out. Believe me, the very last thing you want to have to deal with is a compromised Gmail account.
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Bill Mullins' Weblog - Tech Thoughts 
Hi Bill.
Thanks a lot, I didn’t know about these options.
One question though: for your account to be hacked (as seen in your snapshot) you have to open that particular e-mail isn’t it. I mean, if you delete it without opening there will be no harm done; am I right?
Regards,
Jose.
Hi Jose,
Glad you found them useful.
You’re right – assuming that an email has malware attached, the email must be opened in order to infect. However, on a desktop based email client, if the HTML preview pane is active, an infected email does not necessarily have to be opened to cause an infection, since the preview pane has effectively opened it in the background.
In my particular case, the hack was not caused by an infected email. I’ll refer you to the original article, and the comments – https://billmullins.wordpress.com/2010/06/06/my-gmail-account-hacked-from-nigeria/
Bill
Bill,
Did not know about the arrow indicators. Did know about the IP checking and use it all of the time.
I also change my password frequently (at least once a month)…
Thanks,
Rick
Hey Rick,
Good to get your comments on this. Thanks.
Bill
Hey Bill,
Good article. I frequently review my account activity on my Gmail. I’ve managed to stay “unhacked” to date, but that’s because my Gmail is used as a honeypot, and I rarely use it. I rarely give out my personal email, (different to Gmail), as that is the one that contains the important contact list. If that got hacked, then I would be pissed off.
I did get a fright recently when I checked account activity on Gmail and saw the last IP was USA based. Until I realized I had Hotspot Shield running lol.
Cheers
LOL!!
For sure, Hotspot Shield could lead to a bit of confusion Mal. Might have done that a time or two myself. 🙂
Best,
Bill
Yes, Gmail has proven to offer many great features. But what about privacy…ultimately I’m wary of anything associated with “Big Brother” Google.
Hi John,
I can definitely relate to your comment. The privacy issue is always on my mind, as well.
Bill