Google Chrome is the most popular browser on the web. The popularity comes with more security risks that many hackers try to find vulnerability in the browser to hack your browsing activities. On other hand, many users also do not follow security guidelines like keeping complex passwords and browsing safely. Google Chrome offers multiple ways to protect your computer from malware and dangerous websites. From version 83, you have a Safety Check section for enhanced protection. In this article, we will explain how to do safety check in Google Chrome using the latest feature.
Related: How to protect Google Chrome browser?
Chrome Safety Options
Google already offers multiple ways to protect your browser and computer as we have explained in our previous article.
- You can use malware cleanup tool in Windows version.
- Enable safe browsing option to stop malicious websites.
- Clear browsing activities to remove browser’s stored data.
- Automatically update to protect you from the latest security threats.
- Stop cookies and control the accessibility of individual website.
The safety check combines some new features with the safe browsing security option to protect you from data breaches and harmful extensions.
Access Safety Check Option
- Open Google Chrome browser and go to “chrome://settings/” command URL.
- Click on the “Safety Check” option on the left sidebar.
- Alternatively, you can directly use the command URL “chrome://settings/safetyCheck” to access the safety check setting page in Chrome.
Running Safety Check in Chrome
Click on “Check now” button to start the safety check process. It will run for few seconds and show you the status like below.
Chrome will check the followings during the safety check run.
1. Updates Check
The update process will check whether your browser is up to date with the latest version. Generally, Chrome will automatically update the version when you connect to internet. Therefore, you will not see any error in this section unless you manually disabled the automatic Chrome update process.
2. Passwords Check
With this check Chrome will check all your stored passwords are complex and not leaked in the previous data breaches. In order to do this check, you have to login with your Google account. It helps Google to send the passwords in encrypted manner and check the database to match if the password is in the previous data breaches.
Related: How to import and export passwords in Google Chrome?
3. Safe Browsing Check
The result of the safe browsing section depends on the level of protection you have enabled on your browser. By default, Chrome will use the standard protection and hence you will see a message like “Standard protection is on. For even more security, use enhanced protection.” Follow the below instructions if you want to change the protection level.
- Scroll down on the settings page and go to the next “Privacy and security” section.
- Click on the “Security” option that says, “Safe browsing (protection from dangerous sites) and other security settings”.
- You can enable one of the three protection level available – enhanced, standard or no protection.
Obviously, no protection is not recommended and you can choose between enhanced and standard options.
Enhanced Safe Browsing Protection
This option will proactively warn you before any security problem happens. However, Google will collect your browsing data, extensions and sync with your account if you are logged in. if you do not want to share data with Google then this is not an option for you.
Standard Safe Browsing Protection
This option will warn you when Chrome detects any security threats like potentially dangerous websites, downloads and extensions. Even with this standard protection, Chrome may still send some data to Google to compare the data with the database. However, the URLs are checked with the stored data within Chrome in general.
In both cases, you have to login to your account to check the stored passwords are part of the security breach.
Related: 3 extensions to password protect Google Chrome browser
Advanced Options
You can find few more safe browsing options available under advanced section. The certificates and keys section will take you to your computer management option depending upon the operating system. However, the notable feature is the “Use Secure DNS” option. Check out our previous article on how to use secure DNS in Google Chrome to learn more about this.
4. Extensions Check
The last part of safety check process is to find harmful extensions installed on your browser. Chrome will check all installed extensions and warn you if you have any potentially dangerous extensions.
Final Words
The safety check process helps to verify your data is safe and passwords are not part of data breaches. However, you need to send some details to Chrome in order to have an effective safety check. We recommend to use standard protection level and do the safety check periodically by logging into your Google account. In addition, you can also setup 2 step verification so that no other person can login to your Google account even with a password. Make sure to use complex and non-repetitive passwords for all other websites.
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