Google has said that it can now check the leaked information from third-party data breaches to make sure your passwords are secure

Today is Safer Internet Day and Google has taken the opportunity to introduce a new Chrome extension called Password Checkup. The extension enables you to find out which accounts have been compromised and prompts you to change unsafe passwords. Google says the extension will be further refined over the coming months. 

Google says it will only share minimal information with other services and has developed new privacy-protecting techniques alongside cryptography researchers from Google and Stanford University. 

There's also a new initiative called Cross Account Protection. Sites and apps will have to implement it, but it will mean that, if there's a security risk, you will be prompted to provide extra information when logging into some sites. Here Google will "only share information with apps where you have logged in with Google".

Google says it has developed this "in conjunction with other major technology companies" but only named Adobe, the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and the OpenID Foundation

Google-commissioned research from YouGov found that, for the most part, people in the UK are security conscious online when it comes to passwords. From a survey of over 2,000 adults in the UK, the research found that just one percent of people use the same password for all their online services and over a third use different passwords for each online service.

However, while some adults are conscious of their online security, it was also found that a third of people never review their online security settings and a similar amount do not update their passwords.