Google rolled out two new tools, on Thursday, that are aimed at enhancing the security of the Chrome’s autofill feature, which includes a biometric authentication to fill in saved payment information and new touch-to-fill control in the browser’s password manager.
Until now, any cards saved in a user’s Google account were only accessed by Chrome when needed for a transaction and a CVV or CVC number was needed to confirm that transaction. With the update, Google is adding another security layer — fingerprint authentication — that will be required whenever Chrome needs permission to access the autofill information for user’s credit or debit card from their Google account.
Users can enable or disable the biometric authentication feature from Chrome’s settings. After the first transaction using biometric, the CVC authentication can be disabled too.
The biometric authentication feature is already available in Chrome for Windows and Mac and will be rolled out for Android devices in the coming weeks.
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The second tool is a touch-to-fill feature that enables users to sign-in with ease at it presents all the saved accounts for the current website in a neat dialogue box at the bottom of the screen. This means users don’t need to scroll to respective fields in the form to choose the correct sign-in information for the account.
Touch-to-fill controls will also roll out on Chrome for Android in the next few weeks.
“Going forward, Chrome will allow you to enroll your device to retrieve card numbers via biometric authentication, such as your fingerprint. Chrome uses the W3C standard WebAuthn to securely enroll you for biometric authentication. Biometric information never leaves your device,” Google announced. ” We’ll continue to focus on creating intuitive features that keep you safe while you sign-in and pay on the web, and look forward to sharing more in the future.”
Also read: How to remove a URL from autofill suggestion of Chrome, Firefox, Opera, Edge
