With the current situation of data breaches and data thefts, Google is trying to keep tabs on its user’s passwords to notify them whether their information has been compromised.
According to a report by Engadget, at least one quarter Americans use weak passwords like ‘abc123’,’ qwerty123’, ‘iloveyou’, ‘11111’, ‘admin’, ‘password’, etc., two-thirds of Americans use the same password for multiple sites and almost half don’t even change their password when a security breach is reported.
Hence, Google has launched its very own password management service that will check and notify if the user’s passwords have been leaked or compromised. The service is available for Android, web dashboard and as an extension for chrome.
The checkup is available at passwords.google.com, this has been around for a while now but was only known by chrome power users, however, from now on, Google wants its users to consider this as the company’s official password manager. The password checkup feature on Android is also linked with the above-mentioned database and accesses it via Google’s Android app.
As far as Chrome’s desktop application is concerned, the feature can be added to it by downloading the Password Checkup extension, which was rolled out in February this year. Currently, the extension has been downloaded by more than 0.65 million people and has been used to scan only 1.5% of the passwords.
To improve the numbers and make it easier for the users, Google is adding a password checkup to Chrome as a built-in feature. The feature has already been added to Chrome Canary where the company tests features before sending them to Chrome Beta.
The feature will not work until users choose to use their Google account as a Chrome Profile. This will help in reducing the user’s fears that Chrome is scanning passwords without permission since it will not work unless users opt for password sync.
Apart from this, Google has also introduced other password features like password suggestion tool and password exports.
