Take these 5 steps to protect your privacy and security when using Google Chrome

In order to access this privacy guide, you need to first click on the “three dots” options menu in the top right corner of a Chrome window.

Once there, click on the “Settings” option. Next, navigate to the “Privacy and Security” tab.

The privacy guide will be available on this screen under the “Clear Browsing Data” option.

The Privacy Guide consists of three sections: One where you can choose to “improve your browsing experience” by sending data to Google, another one for choosing the Safe Browsing protection level on your browser and a third one to choose your third-party cookie preferences.  Not only does the guide allow you to make changes to all these options but it will also tell you how your data will be used by Google and other third-party sites depending on the options that you choose.

Google Chrome’s Safety Check will alert you about any compromised passwords or harmful extensions. (Image credit: Screenshot / Google Chrome)

2. Regularly run Google Chrome Safety Checks

When using any piece of software, it is imperative that you regularly check for updates and new features to ensure that you are not vulnerable to different kinds of cyber attacks. Google Chrome comes with a built-in Safety Check feature that will alert you about any pending software updates, whether Safe Browsing protection is on, whether you are using any harmful extensions and whether there is any harmful software on your device. Also, if you use Google’s Password Manager, the Safety Check will warn you if any of your passwords are compromised.

If you run the Safety Check on Chrome regularly, you will be more aware of any potential privacy and security vulnerabilities you open yourself up to while browsing the internet. Also, Google says that it working on rolling out more personalised recommendations and reminders of what data users are sharing with websites as part of the Safety Check.

To use the feature, search for “Safety Check” in Google Chrome’s Settings menu. After this, run the Safety Check and see if you have any vulnerabilities. If the Safety Check returns any issues, make sure you resolve them immediately. For example, if it tells you that you are using a potentially dangerous extension on your browser, remove it.

You can store and sync your account passwords across multiple devices using the Google Password Manager. (Image credit: Screenshot / Google Chrome)

3. Use Google Password Manager to store, and save your passwords across devices

Google’s Password Manager is built directly into Chrome and it will sync your password across multiple devices through your Google account. Using the Google Password manager will make it easy to create, store and use unique and strong passwords for your various online accounts.

As mentioned earlier, you can also use the Google Password Manager to see if any of the passwords you are using is compromised. When Password Manager checks your passwords for this, they are encrypted to ensure that no one, including Google, will be able to read your passwords.

Google Chrome offers you the option to save your password to Password Manager automatically when you log in to a site. You can change this and other options in the Password Manager section of the browser. You can also add new passwords, remove saved passwords and edit them using this menu.

With Google Chrome, you can select particular parts of your browsing history. (Image credit: Screenshot / Google Chrome)

4. Clear specific parts of your browsing history with granular control

Google Chrome allows you to delete all of your browsing history, cookies and your cache from a specific time range or altogether. But you might want to take more control over what data you delete. For example, you might want to delete your browsing history during a certain period while retaining the cookies saved during the period.

To try this out, go to the “Privacy and Security” tab of Google Chrome’s settings. And click on the “Clear browsing data” option. Once in the dialogue box, switch to the advanced tab and precisely select the parts of your browsing history that you want to clear.

After this, hit the “Clear data” button. With this option, you can choose to separately clear your browsing history, download history, cookies, cached images, passwords, auto-fill data, site settings and hosted app data. Thanks to this, you can have the best of both worlds—the ability to clear parts of your browsing history without the inconvenience of having to clear all parts of it in order to do so.

5. Lock your Incognito session on your mobile

If you regularly use Google Chrome’s Incognito browsing feature on your iOS device, you should know that the browser allows you to select an option that would require biometric authentication for resuming an Incognito browsing session. To use it, go to Chrome Settings and then select “Privacy & Security.” Once here, turn on the “Lock incognito tabs when you close Chrome.”

Once you turn on this feature, if anyone were to open the Google Chrome app, the browser will ask for the phone to be unlocked before they can access Incognito tabs. Google says that it is rolling out this feature to Android users as well.