Google's 'Password Checkup' Tool Tells You When Passwords Are Leaked

Google is building a "password checkup" tool into its account controls to improve password habits by telling people if their passwords are weak and when they have been compromised.

This marks an expansion of Google's Password Checkup browser extension, which has accumulated more than 1 million downloads and warned half of users to a compromised password since it was launched earlier this year. Password Checkup is available for the Google Web dashboard and Android devices; later this year, it will be built into the Chrome browser.  

Starting today, Google has embedded Password Checkup into its password manager (passwords.google.com), which stores passwords for users who save them in Google Chrome. Here, they can view the passwords stored in Chrome and check their strength and security. Password Checkup and the password manager are built into each person's Google account.

Password Checkup will inform users if their password has been compromised in a third-party breach, if passwords are reused across different websites, or if they should be strengthened.

Weak passwords continue to put people at risk. Today Google also published the findings from a password study conducted with the Harris Poll. Nearly one-quarter of US adults have used passwords including "abc123," "Password," "123456," "Iloveyou," "111111," "Qwerty," "Admin," "Welcome," or some variation. Nearly 60% have incorporated a name or birthday into a password. Researchers say 75% of respondents struggle to keep track of their passwords.

Read more details here.

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