While many of those extensions would fall into the categories of Potentially Unwanted Programs ( PUPs) or adware, they can still cause problems and many would be frowned upon if you introduced them into your work environment by synchronizing from your home browser. Google regularly has to clear out bad extensions from its Chrome Web Store.
We have seen infected JavaScript-based extensions with malicious code that made it possible to introduce malware to an affected system. Malware in the form of browser extensions is relatively rare, but it does happen. Security threats can also be copied from one device to another, in the form of malicious extensions (also called plugins or add-ons), and open tabs. You should also consider the risk of your device being lost or stolen but continuing to sync your information to the thief (as if there wasn’t enough stress involved in losing a device.)Īnother thing to consider before synchronizing is that having a universal ID for all your systems can lead a hacker from one of your systems to all of them! Spreading danger Imagine what can happen if your kids are playing with your home laptop and it synchronizes to your work system. It’s important to consider whether you are truly the only user of a system that is set to synchronize. Browser synchronization increases the risk of you inadvertently sharing that information with other users of the computers you sync between. Password, cookie and payment card secrecy is also important for security. Synchronized data can include browser history, bookmarks, passwords, cookies, and other information that users consider private and typically have no intention of sharing with anyone else.
After users install the latest Android and desktop updates, however, they can synchronize all that data across devices within the core apps using a QR code, no need for an account. Earlier, Opera required users to create an account and sign in on both platforms, or use the more limited “Opera Touch” app in order to do so. Opera lets users synchronize their bookmarks, settings, and open tabs between mobile and desktop browsers. Microsoft Edge can synchronize your favorites, passwords, and other browser data-including payment information-across all your signed-in devices. When Chrome Sync is toggled on, the synchronised information includes bookmarks, passwords, history, open tabs, settings, preferences, and, in some cases, even payment information saved in Google Pay.įirefox lets you synchronize your data and preferences-such as your bookmarks, history, passwords, open tabs, and installed add-ons-across all your devices. There are slight differences between them when it comes what you can synchronize, but the basics are pretty much the same for most of them.
Since then, other browsers have introduced similar features. What is browser sync?īrowser syncing was introduced in 2012 by Chrome with the goal of letting you continue at home where you left off at work, and vice versa. While this is certainly convenient, particularly when you’re migrating to a new device, synchronizing browsers also comes with some risks. Modern browsers include synchronization features (like Google Chrome’s Sync) so that all your browsers, on all your devices, share the same tabs, passwords, plugins, and other features.