Soon, you’ll be able to choose which websites may monitor your location using Google Chrome on a desktop

Google is about to unveil a Chrome OS location control feature. This new feature will allow users to limit location access for all of their Chrome OS applications and services, much like the camera and microphone controls option that was released last year. This covers background system operations as well as Chrome web applications and Android apps. Apps and websites may still be able to determine a user’s general location based on their IP address, even though the update would mostly prevent Google Location Services from working.

9to5Google reports that location tracking features for Chrome OS should be available in the first half of 2024. You may quickly access these restrictions by going to Security and Privacy in your Settings. That’s not all, however. According to the source, Chrome OS will also have app-specific permissions for location, microphone, and camera in addition to the location controls upgrade. Users will therefore have greater control over their Chromebook’s privacy since they will be able to choose which applications, if any, are allowed to use these functionalities on an individual basis.

Google is also providing ChromeOS with safe local data recovery for corporate customers: “ChromeOS requires that the user have access to their account and to their physical device in order to restore local data when users misplace or forget their passwords.” Recovery efforts are “logged into a tamper-proof, persistent ledger in a privacy-preserving manner, ensuring all unauthorised access attempts are immediately detected.”

Meanwhile, Google Chrome has released a number of security updates as part of its ongoing efforts to improve user privacy and protection. The enhanced password management on Chrome for iOS and real-time URL protection with Google Safe Browsing are the main features of these improvements.

Google Safe Browsing now provides in-the-moment protection against malware, phishing, and other online risks. Chrome now evaluates webpages in real-time against a server-side list of known dangerous sites, as opposed to the previous method of utilizing a locally updated list that was updated on a regular basis. Google claims that this modification would greatly shorten the window of vulnerability and raise the likelihood of phishing block rates by 25%. “The new capability – also rolling out to Android later this month – uses encryption and other privacy-enhancing techniques to ensure that no one, including Google, knows what website you’re visiting,” according to Google’s official blog post.

Furthermore, Google has improved the Password Checkup feature on Chrome for iOS, making it capable of identifying hacked passwords and emphasizing weak or frequently used ones. Now that password problems will be quickly detected, users will be further encouraged to take quick action to increase account security. Google notes that in addition to providing users with more control over their online safety, this update will enable users to do manual password checks whenever they want by using the Safety Check feature found in Chrome Settings.