Google Chrome is rolling out updates to its autofill feature, giving the browser much deeper access to the data stored in your Google Account and Google Wallet. This move means consolidating even more of your personal information under Google’s umbrella.
It is frustrating to hit the checkout page only to face a wall of repetitive forms. Autofill is a way you can give your browser permission to save data and make it faster. The biggest change to this formula is how Chrome interacts with your main Google sign-in. For signed-in users, Chrome now features a much deeper connection to your Google Account. This will let you pull information like your name and email address the moment you need to sign up, log in, or enter details on a website.
Similarly, when you are shopping or ordering a service, your saved Home and Work addresses are shared from your Google Account. This is rolling out across desktop, Android, and iOS immediately.
The integration does not stop at basic contact information. Chrome now hooks directly into Google Wallet for details that are notoriously hard to remember. If you have loyalty cards saved in Google Wallet, you can now use auto-fill to input those numbers when shopping in Chrome on desktop or Android.
The Wallet integration also extends to travel and vehicle details. Whether you’re booking flights or renting a car, Chrome can now auto-fill the trip details. Chrome recognizes the form and pulls the necessary information, like the confirmation number and dates, directly from your booking saved in Google Wallet.
Beyond travel, Chrome on desktop now supports saving vehicle details like VINs and license plates, which helps speed up paperwork for mechanics or insurance sites. For those of us who primarily use phones for browsing, Google is also fixing an issue on the mobile side. Mobile forms were bad, and Google’s old suggestions were too cramped.
The company is fixing this by introducing a two-line display for all auto-fill suggestions in Chrome on Android. This expanded view gives you more context about each suggestion, whether it is a password, an address, or a payment method.
Finally, Chrome is getting smarter about addresses worldwide. Google has made significant improvements to recognizing and filling addresses globally, reflecting how different countries structure their postal information. For instance, Chrome now handles the “between streets” descriptions common in Mexico. The company is also planning upcoming support for phonetic names in Japan.
It’s true that Google has all the data you give to it, so it’s really only pulling data from your profile or app to your browser. However, it still feels like Google is pushing things far in the name of holiday shopping. Sure, it’s convenient, but the trade-off is that you are allowing Chrome to access and centralize more of your personal, sensitive data, including travel documents and vehicle information. It is important to know that you are trusting Google with a much larger slice of your digital life for the sake of a few saved clicks.
The only thing you get to opt in for is the Wallet and Travel features, but the rest you are forced into. You just need to turn on enhanced autofill in your Chrome settings.
Source: Chrome
