Today, Google announced a whole slew of new features coming to the Google Chrome browser. The new features will make your online life safer and easier.
The first Google Chrome upgrade is probably the most important and powerful. Starting soon, Chrome will actually warn you if the username/password combination you’ve just entered into a website was compromised in a prior data breach. The alert will inform you that your privacy and security are in danger and encourage you to change your password.
If this sounds familiar, it’s because this feature originally appeared as a Chrome extension called Password Checkup. Later on, Google incorporated this right into its Google Account services, so you could check on the integrity of your saved passwords at any time. Now, though, Google Chrome will let you know in real-time if you need to update your credentials.
Don’t like this new feature? No big deal, you can always turn it off in Chrome Settings under the Sync and Services section.
Another new feature coming to Google Chrome is real-time phishing protection on desktop. Google says that this new system will offer up to 30% more protection than Chrome currently offers. You can read more in-depth on how this works here. This feature will eventually come to other platforms as well, but it will only be on desktop at first.
Related: 20 Chrome tips and tricks you should know about
The third new Google Chrome feature is predictive phishing protection. Since 2017, if you’re using Chrome and have Sync enabled, Chrome will warn you if you’ve entered your Google credentials in a site that is suspected of phishing. However, going forward, this feature will be on for everyone, even those who don’t use Sync. Additionally, it will also work on the passwords you have saved in the Chrome password manager, further strengthening your online security.
Finally, desktop users will soon see a new design for how Google Chrome signifies which user is signed in. This will help prevent you from accidentally saving your passwords to someone else’s profile if you regularly share a Chrome browser with other people. This won’t change how user profiles work, it’s just a new look that will be easier for everyone to understand.
Looking for more in-depth explanations on these new features? Click here to read Google’s security blog which goes over everything in a more technical sense.
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