Chrome’s newest update brings revamped safety controls, tab groups

Google Chrome’s back with a new update that should interest users who value privacy as well as those with messy tabs.

According to Google’s official Chrome blog, Chrome 83 primarily brings about a bunch of new privacy controls that may not be super exciting to most people, but could please folks who pay a lot of attention to which websites collect data on them. 

These include streamlined controls for which websites can use cookies, which data is shared to your Google account across multiple devices, and which sites can access your camera and microphone. Oh yeah, and the ability to clear your browsing history has been shifted to the top of the privacy menu.

There’s also a new “Safety Check” feature that’s been added to the settings menu. If you run this check, Chrome will tell you if any of your stored passwords have been compromised in a data breach. 

The last two noteworthy updates we’ll cover are changes to tabs and extensions. Google is slowly rolling out the ability to group tabs together in labeled categories, which we’ve known about for a bit. Extensions will also be grouped together in a new drop-down menu that’s accessed by clicking on a puzzle piece icon in the top right corner.

If you’re not sure what version of Chrome you’re running, click the three dots in the top right corner of the browser window. Scroll down to “Help” and click “About Google Chrome.” You’ll be taken to a menu with the option to check for updates. Once you’ve downloaded any new updates, just shut down the browser and start it back up.

Et voila. Enjoy your slightly new version of Chrome and be sure to change those passwords if they’ve been breached.