Some of you may have remembered that just a little over a month ago, we exclusively reported that Microsoft account is set to get recent activity feeds, recovery codes, and security notification options. It appears that Microsoft has gone live with these new features today. In an official blog post over at The Official Microsoft Blog, Eric Doerr, Group Program Manager for Microsoft Account gave an overview of these features. Below is an excerpt:
Recent activity – this page displays different types of activity, including successful and unsuccessful sign-ins, the addition and deletion of security information and more. For each type of activity, we show you what kind of device and browser was used, and what location the request came from, including a handy map from our friends at Bing.
If you see something suspicious, there’s an easy “This wasn’t me” button that will help you take steps to protect your account. We can also use this information to help us fine tune our protection mechanisms. You can read more about the new recent activity page here.
Recovery codes – Because two-step verification setup requires two verified pieces of security information, like a phone number and email address, it will be a rare occasion when both options fail, but in the event they do, we’ve got you covered. We’ve added the ability to create a secure recovery code, which can be used to regain access to your account if you lose access to your other security information.
Anybody can add a recovery code to their account (even if you don’t turn on two-step verification). Your recovery code is like a spare key to your house – so make sure you store it in a safe place. You can only request one recovery code at a time; requesting a new code cancels the old one.
More control of security notifications – We’ve also heard feedback that some of you would like to have more control over how you receive security notifications (e.g. password reset notifications). So we’ve added the ability for you to choose where we send notifications. Again, this is all about giving you greater visibility and control of your account so that we can work together to help keep your information safe.
According to the blog post, all of these changes are based on feedback from users – to give them more visibility and control of their own account. The updates should be rolling out over the “next few days” at http://account.live.com, so let us know if you see it in your account already.