Soon, Google Chrome will prevent you from filling insecure forms
What's the story
Browsing the web comes with the risk of phishing, where legit-looking websites can trick you into giving away confidential information like usernames-passwords, payment details. Now, to help tackle this challenge and protect your privacy, Google is working on a new Chrome feature that will prevent you from filling up insecure forms. Here's all you need to know about it.
Features
New flag to stop autofill on insecure forms
As first reported by Techdows, Google is testing a new Chrome flag to prevent information submission on insecure forms. Called Disable Autofill for mixed forms, the option configures the browser to stop auto-filling information, from addresses to email IDs, on a form that is hosted on an https website but is submitted in plain text over insecure http connection.
Warning
Warning on manual submission
Along with stopping autofill functions, the feature will also show a warning to stop you from manually submitting the insecure form. "The data in this form is being sent through an insecure connection," the warning reads. "The form is being submitted over an insecure connection, which may expose your information (for example, passwords, messages, or credit cards) when it is sent to this site."
Options
From there, you can proceed or go back
From the warning, you can either choose 'Submit Anyways' and proceed to submit your information over the insecure connection or choose 'Go Back' to avoid risking any data. Also, do note that the flag will not affect the autofill function for passwords; they will be entered as on a regular page, which is pretty weird as this option has been designed for protecting information.
Availability
When will you get this flag?
Currently, you can search and enable this flag by heading over to chrome://flags on Chrome 86 Canary. There is no word on the stable availability of this capability but we expect it might debut with the stable release of Chrome 86, which will happen in October. It will work on Chrome for Linux, Windows, Mac, Android as well as Chrome OS.