Google recently added a new security feature to Chrome. “Password Leak Detection” or “Password Protection” which came as an official extension initially was added to Chrome as part of the browser’s password manager.

What is Password Protection?

Password Checkup extension was released as a tool to avoid users continuing to use compromised passwords without being aware of a leak. When this extension is enabled, Chrome will check passwords that you use to log into websites are part of data breaches that are known to Google. If it finds a match, you will get an alert to change the password.

By making this a built-in feature, Chrome will be able to provide better and maybe even proactive password leak protection.

Enable Password Protection

As of now, this feature is available only in Chrome Canary, and behind a flag. This might change in a few weeks, and I shall update the article accordingly. For now, here is the flag that you should enable:

Name: Password Leak Detection

Description: Enables the detection of leaked passwords. – Mac, Windows, Linux, Chrome OS, Android

URL: chrome://flags/#password-leak-detection

Enable this flag, restart Chrome and head over to Settings > Passwords. You should now see a new option, which is enabled by default: “Password protection”

The description reads: “Show a warning when you use an unsafe password that was a part of data breach. It is available for signed-in users only”.

According to the flag, this feature will come to Chrome for Android as well. However, the flag is not available on Chrome Canary yet. I shall update this article when the Android version of this feature is also ready.

Questions? drop-in a comment.