Frequent data breaches have made it a mess for users to set up unique login credentials for an account. However, services like HaveIBeenPwned are striving to help users in this regard by informing them of breached credentials. Last year, Mozilla teamed up with HIBP and launched ‘Firefox Monitor’ – a tool alerting users of hacks. Following this move, Google also launched ‘Password Checkup’ – a similar tool – earlier this year. However, for making it more accessible for the users, Google now plans to launch this feature in the browser. Google Chrome will alert users of breached passwords with a dedicated built-in browser feature.
Chrome Will Alert Of Breached Passwords
As revealed through some Chrome bug posts, Google is testing to launch a dedicated built-in browser feature in Chrome to alert users of breached passwords. The leak detection API in Chrome browser will warn users the moment they come across a website that experienced a breach.
According to this bug post, the Chrome browser will display a popup dialogue box to alert users in three different scenarios.
1) Password saved and used on multiples sites
2) Password used only on the current site
3) Password not saved and used on multiple sites
Besides, as evident from another bug post, the user can also turn this option to disable password checks. For this, a dedicated option will be available in Chrome browser settings for the password manager (chrome://settings/passwords).
Feature Available In Chrome 78 Canary
While the feature is presently under development for Chrome, Google has made it available in Chrome 78 Canary. To access this feature, users can follow these steps.
- Go to “chrome://flags”.
- Under the ‘Available’ tab, search for ‘Password Leak Detection’ feature.
- Set up the feature as ‘Enabled’.
Upon relaunching the browser, users can experience the feature in real-time.
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