Guide for your teenagers: How safe is it to save passwords on internet browsers?
Today’s teenagers use the internet not only for academic purposes but also for extra-curricular activities and entertainment. So, they have multiple online accounts which makes it difficult for them to memorise all the different passwords. This is why they prefer to save their login details like usernames and passwords on different internet browsers. However, it may not be that safe to store passwords on these browsers. If you are worried about your teenager’s online safety, you need to have a clearer idea about what happens when passwords e saved online. Here’s an explainer for you and your tech-savvy kids.
Is it safe to save passwords on popular internet browsers?
As per Google, Chrome encrypts both usernames and passwords with a secret key that is customised only for a particular device. This means that any form of information stored on Chrome server can’t be accessed by any third part, not even Google itself. While this is good news, the bad news is, Google only sends an alert when someone tries to access your Gmail username and password, however, it is not designed to send alerts if other accounts’ usernames or passwords are being accessed by an unknown user. According to Google, this is not that unsafe because most online accounts are accessed through Gmail. But, practically speaking, that’s risky as well.
Moreover, in case of Firefox and other browsers, there are no security pins to protect the stored user ids and passwords. So, when Firefox claims that your data is secure, it means that anyone can go to the settings and access the login details. For all these reasons, it’s better to avoid storing any password on any internet browsers as they are never fully safe and risks are involved more often than not.
How to ensure online safety?
In case of official accounts, private social media accounts and banking, it is therefore better not to store any of these passwords on any of the internet browsers. Instead, one should follow basic security protocols like those two-step verification system that are now being offered by most banks and other sectors. This two-factor authentication (2FA) not only has a primary password protection but also an additional password that maybe a PIN or even an OTP. Apart from compulsorily enabling 2FA verification on every online account, one should also change passwords every month. The key is to try and maintain unique and unpredictable passwords, along with secondary passwords or PIN codes.
How to remove passwords on Chrome?
To remove already saved passwords from Google Chrome, search “Google Password Manager” on the search bar and it will open an official Google site on top. Tap on it and select or unselect any accounts you don’t want Chrome to retain information on its server. After this, one needs to enter their Gmail password and can go ahead and delete all the chosen data.