How Chrome protects your passwords

Chrome can help you identify and change passwords that were compromised by data breaches so that your credentials remain secure. Your credentials include your usernames and passwords for sites or apps that you sign in to.

How password protection works

Chrome can warn you if the username and password you use to sign in to a website were involved in a data breach. This setting is turned on by default.

You can also use Chrome to check all of your saved credentials at the same time. Chrome checks your saved passwords and then lets you know if any of them were exposed in a data breach.

To check your credentials, Chrome first encrypts your username and password. Then it sends the encrypted credentials to Google for comparison against an encrypted list of known breached data. If Chrome detects a match between the encrypted sets of data, it displays a warning that prompts you to change your password. Google never learns your usernames or passwords during this process.

How we protect your data

When you use Chrome to sign in to a website, Chrome encrypts your username and password with a secret key known only to your device. Then it sends an obscured copy of your data to Google. Because the encryption happens before Google’s servers get the information, nobody, including Google, learns your username or password.

You're in control

You can check if a data breach exposed any of your saved usernames or passwords. You can also choose to get automatic warnings about credentials when you sign in to a site where a data breach was detected.

On your computer, to check your saved passwords:

1. Open Chrome.
2. Select More Passwords and autofill Google Password Manager.
3. On the left, select Checkup.

On your computer, to get automatic warnings when there’s a data breach:

1. Open Chrome.
2. Select More Settings Privacy and security.
3. Under “Privacy and security,” select Security.
4. Turn on Warn you if passwords are exposed in a data breach.
   • You can find this option under “Standard protection.”
   • If you opt in to Enhanced protection, this option is on by default.

If you’re on a mobile device, learn more about how to check saved passwords and get automatic warnings.

Related resources

• Manage passwords
• Generate passwords
• Use passwords across your devices
• Get started with on-device encryption for passwords