Internet browsers have been evolving for years to make our browsing more comfortable, and our experience of using the different websites more enjoyable. But not all of these functions are equally secure and it seems that the recurring option to autocomplete forms It has weak points despite the security efforts of companies like Google, responsible for the highly expanded Google Chrome.
It seems that although the web pages have the HTTPs security certificate installed, and although Chrome itself hides all the autocomplete data behind different protections, at the moment of the exchange we can reveal more information than we think. And maybe the one we would like. The process is not entirely secure so nothing would happen if we deactivated it.
How they can violate the security of your browser’s autocomplete
As they tell from GHacks, the autocomplete option that browsers incorporate, and Chrome is the most widespread of all Android and part of iOS, can be a privacy and security issue. Despite the fact that the web in question incorporates HTTPs security certificates, and even despite the fact that Chrome itself allows you to hide the autocomplete data behind your fingerprint or another system.
The problem occurs when a malicious web programmer does not show you on the web all the data that it is going to request during the autocomplete. It is possible that on the web you will see that you are asked for your email address, your password (it is encrypted, there should be no problem here) or some of your personal data. Even your card data, which is also encrypted. But there may be more hidden information.
We are not talking about hidden as such, because the browser would detect it, but about showing this data but keeping it out of the visible page. The one in front of your eyes while asking Chrome to autocomplete the fields. There, the developer can include personal data that does not make sense to be requested by the website you visit. And in the vast majority of cases, if we deliver this data we are not even aware that we are doing it.
We have focused on Chrome because from GHacks they tell us that this sending of “hidden” data does not seem to occur in Firefox but it does in Chrome and other Chromium-based browsers, such as Brave and others that circulate in the Android world. So, at this point we can do nothing but recommend that you disable this autocomplete, because in this way we will have to fill in each field by hand and, therefore, we will not fill in the hidden data. Data that is not marked as “mandatory” so as not to give away, of course.
Disabling the autocomplete option in Chrome
This autocomplete system is usually activated by default on our Android, so that every time we fill out a form for the first time, the system offers us to save that data so as not to repeat the process in the future. There we can naturally choose we do not want you to save the data but what we will show you here is how to deactivate this system so that it does not bother you anymore.
For disable chrome autocomplete We have to go to the settings of our browser. But let’s do it right, we’ll show you step by step:
- Open Chrome and click on the three vertical buttons at the top right.
- Go to ‘Settings’.
- Then we enter ‘Passwords’.
- We deactivate the field ‘Save passwords’.
- We deactivated the field ‘Log me in automatically’.
Disabling password saving
- Now click on the back button to return to the previous menu.
- We now access ‘Payment methods’.
- Here we deactivate ‘Save and autocomplete payment methods’.
Disabling payment method saving
- Again, we press the back button to return to the previous menu.
- We now access ‘Addresses and more’.
- Here we deactivate ‘Save and autocomplete addresses’.
Disabling address saving
We’ve already disabled Chrome from saving sensitive data like passwords, addresses, and payment methods. The last step is to delete data you may already have stored, just in case. To do this we doing the next:
- Open Chrome and click on the three vertical buttons at the top right.
- Go to ‘Settings’.
- Go to ‘Privacy and security’.
- Now click on ‘Clear browsing data’.
- We go to the second tab, the ‘Advanced settings’
- We select ‘Since always’ at the top where the time is indicated.
- We mark ‘Saved passwords’ and ‘Data to autocomplete forms’.
- Click on ‘Delete Data’ and confirm if requested.
Clearing browsing data
Clever. Google Chrome’s autofill option is disabled and any data saved so far has been deleted. Now our navigation is a little more secure, although from now on we have to re-enter each data in each online form that requests it.
