If you use the spell checker in Chrome or Edge, your data may be at risk. Because on some websites, it accidentally also analyzes password and form fields.
This security risk poses the use of Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge. (Source: depositphotos.com / monticello)
- With advanced spell checking turned on, Chrome and Edge transfer your data to third-party servers for analysis.
- Many websites do not exclude spell checking when entering passwords and personal information.
- This can end up in the wrong hands.
Google Chrome’s advanced spell checker and similar tools for Microsoft’s Edge browser pose a risk, according to researchers. With their use, you risk that private data and passwords fall into the wrong hands.
Because the tools also analyze data on many websites that you enter in forms, and password fields are also often evaluated when you click on “Show password”. This is reported by the US magazine BleepingComputer, citing security researchers from the security company ‘Otto-js’
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According to the researchers, the data would be sent to trustworthy companies such as Microsoft or Google. However, it is unclear whether they will be stored there after the spelling check and whether they would enjoy special protection if the worst came to the worst. Otto-js has informed affected websites about the problem and first providers such as LastPass and AWS have already reacted and are now excluding the corresponding fields from the spell check.
If you want to be on the safe side, you should disable the spell checker altogether. For this you have to proceed as follows:
How to enable and disable advanced spell checker
- Opens the settings of Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge
- Then click on “Advanced” in Chrome and then on “Language”. On Edge, select “Languages” and then look for the “Spell Check” section.
- There you can activate or deactivate the spell checker.
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