Google hands out huge free login upgrade to billions of users and it saves you from costly Christmas nightmare

GOOGLE is handing out a handy free upgrade to Chrome users – and it can save you from sinister online thieves.

The search engine giant revealed the surprise update in a blog post just before Christmas.

1

Google is upgrading a feature called Safety Check, which is a button you press to reveal if one of your saved passwords has been "compromised".

This began life as a button you could press to reveal if one of your saved passwords has been "compromised".

Now Google has changed the feature so that it all happens on its own – no need to press the button.

"Safety Check for Chrome on desktop will now run automatically in the background," said Google's

"You'll get proactively alerted if passwords saved in Chrome have been compromised, any of your extensions are potentially harmful, you’re not using the latest version of Chrome, or site permissions need your attention.

"These alerts will appear in the three-dot menu in Chrome so you can take action."

It means you won't need to check manually all the time.

Instead Safety Check will pop up with warnings for you, and you can click on them to resolve the problem.

Most read in News Tech

TRAGIC MOSLEY

Reason why Dr Mosley left phone before walk revealed in cause-of-death update

AIRPORT 'ATTACK'

Two brothers charged over Manchester Airport brawl - as cops cleared

SCHOOL ATTACK

Teen kills girl, 7, & injures 7 as teacher fights for life in school stabbing

I NEED U

Emotional Tulisa reveals why she split from NDubz bandmate Fazer

That's not all: Safety Check is also changing to let "revoke" website permissions.

For instance, it can switch off a website's access to your location or microphone if you haven't visited it in a long time.

Safety Check can also highlight when you're getting a lot of notifications from a website that you don't engage with often.

Then you'll have the option to easily disable these pop-ups.

How to update Google Chrome

Google Chrome typically updates automatically, although you usually need to relaunch the browser for an update to take effect.

If you want to check manually, just click on the More button in the top-right – it looks like three dots stacked vertically.

You should see one of the following options:

• "Relaunch to update"
• "Finish update"
• "New Chrome available"

READ MORE SUN STORIES

MOVING ON

BBC star quits after 24 years on air saying 'what a privilege it's been'

ruth-less

Eamonn Holmes blindsided by ‘TV wife's’ sudden departure in another brutal blow

Another option is to click More > Help > About Google Chrome and accept the update if one is available.

And a third option is to simply type chrome://settings/help into your browser's address bar and then download any updates.