GOOGLE is handing out a handy free upgrade to Chrome users – and it can save you from sinister online thieves.
The search engine giant revealed the surprise update in a blog post just before Christmas.
Google is upgrading a feature called Safety Check, which is a button you press to reveal if one of your saved passwords has been "compromised".
This began life as a button you could press to reveal if one of your saved passwords has been "compromised".
Now Google has changed the feature so that it all happens on its own – no need to press the button.
Dog who 'always melts hearts' with his smile hopes to find a loving family
"Safety Check for Chrome on desktop will now run automatically in the background," said Google's
"You'll get proactively alerted if passwords saved in Chrome have been compromised, any of your extensions are potentially harmful, you’re not using the latest version of Chrome, or site permissions need your attention.
"These alerts will appear in the three-dot menu in Chrome so you can take action."
It means you won't need to check manually all the time.
Instead Safety Check will pop up with warnings for you, and you can click on them to resolve the problem.
That's not all: Safety Check is also changing to let "revoke" website permissions.
For instance, it can switch off a website's access to your location or microphone if you haven't visited it in a long time.
Safety Check can also highlight when you're getting a lot of notifications from a website that you don't engage with often.
Then you'll have the option to easily disable these pop-ups.
How to update Google Chrome
Google Chrome typically updates automatically, although you usually need to relaunch the browser for an update to take effect.
Sweet rescue dog with shy personality desperate to find a new best friend
If you want to check manually, just click on the More button in the top-right – it looks like three dots stacked vertically.
You should see one of the following options:
- "Relaunch to update"
- "Finish update"
- "New Chrome available"
Another option is to click More > Help > About Google Chrome and accept the update if one is available.
And a third option is to simply type chrome://settings/help into your browser's address bar and then download any updates.
