Google Chrome will now alert you when your password has been stolen

• Google will now warn you if your username and password have been compromised in a data breach.
• Google is also introducing real-time phishing protection to warn users about malicious sites.
• Both the security features are being rolled out in a phased manner with Chrome 79.

Google has started rolling out a new feature for the Google Chrome browser with Chrome 79 that brings several password protection improvements. The main addition to password protection is that Chrome will now alert you when your password has been compromised in a data breach.

The new feature was announced by Google CEO Sundar Pichai in a tweet. In addition to warning users about compromised usernames and passwords, the new update will also alert users when they visit a malicious website.

How does the new password protection feature work?

The new password protection features announced by Google are quite simple. When you type your username and password into a website, Google will alert you if it detects that the password has been compromised in a data breach on some site or app.

To recall, Google had introduced a similar feature as a Password Checkup extension earlier this year and in October, the company had added this to the Password Checkup in Google Account’s security section. Google is now integrating this feature directly in its browser.

This feature is currently being rolled out in phases and once you receive this update, you can control it in your browser’s settings under Sync and Google Services.

Real-time phishing protection

In its blog post, Google has added that it maintains a list of unsafe or malicious sites and shares this information with webmasters and other browsers to protect users from such sites. While the list is refreshed every 30 minutes, some sites still slip through by switching domains or hiding from Google’s crawlers.

With its new protection features, Google will offer real-time phishing protection on desktop. This feature will be available in “Make searches and browsing better” under Chrome settings.