Biometric fingerprint protection is being added as an option to Chrome for password autofill

You’re probably accustomed to clicking in a password box for a website and selecting your autofill settings to log in quicker. While convenient as it is, it’s not exactly super safe. Let’s say – for example – that you left your Chromebook or desktop unlocked. In this situation, someone could autofill your bank password and log in without a hitch.

I would never advocate for anyone using their device without a secure lock screen password so their data remains safe, but some folks prefer the convenience of getting straight to their data, even if it means others could potentially do the same.

In a new Keyword blog post today, Google is once again celebrating Safer Internet Day. In addition to adding automatic image blurring in Google Search for explicit images, it’s taking other steps to help protect users as well. For example, pretty soon, you’ll be able to toggle an additional layer of security on Chrome for Android and desktop via a biometric fingerprint lock before automatically filling in your saved passwords on websites!

As you can see in the image above, the user is trying to autofill their Medium password on the login screen, and instead of getting straight in, they’re met with a pop-up dialogue box from the browser’s Omnibox asking them whether or not they would like to enable fingerprint protection for this process.

Once you agree to this, you’ll be required to touch your phone’s fingerprint sensor before you will be allowed to autofill any website’s password boxes. If you’re using a Chromebook or desktop with a fingerprint sensor built into the hardware, you’ll be able to do this as well.

Google says you can also use this new tool to securely reveal, copy or edit passwords saved in your Google Password Manager. I’m not sure what Chrome will ask you to do if you’ve enabled fingerprint security on a device with a sensor and then try to autofill a password on a device that does not have one. Still, this is a useful extra step to give you peace of mind, and I recommend you enable it if you’re not opposed to biometrics!