Google Chrome Will Soon Add A New Feature Called Password Checkup

In a bid to help its users keep an eye on data breaches, Google recently developed a tool for the Chrome browser that can automatically check and detect compromised passwords.

Back in February, this was the first time the search giant launched a new extension called Password Checkup. The extension sends a notification to users whenever they type a combination of username and password that is supposed to be hacked. Until now, Chrome users have downloaded Password Checkup more than 650,000 times and used it to scan about 1.5% of their total sign-ins.

Google has planned to integrate the extension into its Chrome browser in the upcoming time. As such, it will be no longer necessary for users to carry extra steps or have their device installed any extension when they need to check passwords. The main purpose of Google when introducing this tool is to meet the growing demand for security improvement.

Checkup feature has been embedded into users’ Google Account as a solution to help them detect rapidly whether their passwords are compromised on other services or sites or not. In addition, it also alerts users when they have reused old password phrases, as well as when they need to improve the strength for weak passwords. Although LastPass and many other services have provided similar tools, Google wants to turn them into something more accessible via passwords.google.com.

About 25% of US users are using weak passwords such as abc123, while over 60% are reusing the only password for many other sites. Lower 50% tend to change their current password when it is revealed in a data breach. With Password Checkup, users will be able to know data breaches sooner. In fact, 60% of surveyed Chrome users didn’t know that their existing accounts had been hacked.

In addition, Google added some password features to the Chrome browser like a password suggestion tool and password exports.