Google held the 2021 Google I / O yesterday. In it, the company announced many small news in its services and products. At the security level, the company announced improvements such as a private folder in Google Photos accessible only by password or biometric identification, or the possibility of turning the mobile into a car key thanks to NFC and UWB , assuming that the manufacturer also adds support . Now comes a new security feature for Chrome too.
Google continues to bet on improving the security of passwords in Chrome . The company introduced a password checker , which alerts us when a password we enter appears on hack lists. We can also do this check manually from the security section of the browser.
Google will change passwords quickly
The problem is that, although in many cases security problems are reported, it is up to the user to find a solution, having to change the passwords in dozens of services. If we use unique passwords in these services, such as those suggested by the browser itself, a hack will not mean more than having to change the password of a website.
Unfortunately, many people continue to reuse passwords between services, which leads to very dangerous hacks. Google’s password manager is an excellent way to avoid this, and of course, when Chrome detects that a password is a hack, it will allow you to change it quickly and with a single click.
When a password appears in a hack, Google will notify us of it. From now on, an icon will appear below that will say ” Change password “, and the browser will automatically take care of removing the password saved in Chrome and guiding us to create a new one. This functionality will be available for now on a limited list of compatible websites, such as the large social networks. Little by little more services will be added.
The feature is currently only available on Chrome for Android . It will start first in the United States, and later it will reach more countries. To work, the feature uses Duplex on the Web , announced in 2019, and they use voice assistants to automate tasks. Little by little they have been adding new functions, such as buying food, checking in on flights or buying movie tickets.
Privacy improvements with Android 12
On Android there will also be privacy improvements. In addition to the visual improvements of Material You , we find a new section called Privacy Panel , which will tell us the access to sensitive elements of the mobile that the apps have had in the last 24 hours, such as microphone, camera or location, in addition to other permissions .
It also allows you to quickly remove permission from an app that has it, and an icon will be shown at the top when an app is accessing the microphone or the camera. In turn, there will be a new option to completely block access to the camera or microphone from the notification bar.
As we can see, Google continues to take great steps to improve the privacy of the services we use every day, in a constant struggle with Apple to demonstrate who offers the safest ecosystem.
