Sundar Pichai reveals he doesn’t change his password often, does this instead to protect his account

KEY STORY

• Google CEO Sundar Pichai has answered some of the questions that you always have to ask him. Pichai, during an interview with the BBC, revealed how many phones he uses, how many times he changes his password and other tech habits. The Google CEO also noted that the free and open internet around the world is under attack.

• In an interview with the BBC, Pichai revealed he does not change his password frequently. He recommended users opt for “two-factor authentication” instead of changing their passwords frequently.

• Two-factor authentication is way safer than meddling with the password repeatedly. When you change passwords quite frequently, you often have trouble remembering them and you end up mixing them. So it is always good to opt for two-factor authentication.

• Pichai also revealed that he uses more than 20 phones at a time for different purposes. “I am constantly changing and trying out every new phone, and I’m testing it out all the time, he told the news publication. He also talked about why he lets his children browse videos on YouTube, which is owned by Google. Pichai said it is important for the new generation to learn to adapt to evolving technology.

• Pichai, who oversees Gmail, Google Chrome, Google Maps, Google Earth, Google Docs, Google Photos and Android OS, said that the free and open internet is under attack.

• “I think a free and open internet is a tremendous force for good, and we take it for granted a bit,” the Google CEO told BBC. “In each country now there is a debate what speech is OK and what should be allowed… in some ways I think we pull back from the bigger picture (which is that) many countries around the world are restricting the flow of information and drawing much more rigid boundaries,” he said. He also said that countries with strong democratic traditions and values should stand up against the potential fragmenting of the internet.

  During the interview, Pichai was also asked common on his Indian roots. He said that he is an American citizen but it is deep within him. “it’s a big part of who I am,” Pichai said. The Google CEO was born in Madurai, Tamil Nadu in 1972. He had completed his schooling at Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya, a Central Board of Secondary Education school. He then got into the coveted IIT Kharagpur and earned his B Tech in metallurgical engineering. Post that, he headed to Stanford University to do his MS in materials science and engineering and then an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.