Congrats, you just purchased a Chromebook! Now you need to make sure that you protect it from all the dangers out there and that you surf the internet safe and sound.
The device is running on Chrome OS, so it’s not much you can do. It’s clear that it is more secure than other operating systems out there. But that doesn’t mean that you need to ignore the fact that it can still get infected.
We have written this article to give you some tips and tricks with regards to the security of your Chromebook.
Be careful with Chrome extensions
When it comes to extensions, people tend to, well, get lots of them. A lot of them are nice and awesome, but are they safe and worth it? Many extensions compromise the security of your data. Let us take a clear example: Evernote Chrome, which allowed attackers to steal data from more than four million users. Due to this, you need to be careful when it comes to extensions. Get only those extensions that you really need, for example those used for work.
Get the Google Find My Device app
If your device has access to the Google Play Store – most do – then you really need to get this app. In order to do that, go to Settings, to Google Play Store, to Manage Android Preferences, to Google, to Security, to Find My Device.
After you install the app, open it, and select the Google account that you want to use. You will probably need to also type in the password. After you logged in, you will need to enable your location. In order to do that, you need to click Allow simply, and the on-screen map will find the device in no time.
If you really lose your device, go to Find My Device, and find it. It’s as simple as that.
Don’t forget to configure Chrome
His browser comes with a set of settings that are different from those of Chrome OS. You will spend a lot of time on Chrome OS in the browser, so you might want to make some changes to the default settings. In order to do this, you need to open Chrome and click the menu button. From the dropdown menu, go to Settings. From the Privacy And Security section, you will need to disable: “Allow Sites To Check If You Have Payment Methods Saved” and “Use A Prediction Service To Load Pages More Quickly”. You will also need to enable: “Safe Browsing” and “Send A “Do Not Track” Request With Your Browsing Traffic”.
You might also want to prevent your browsing history from being synced into your Google account. In order to do that, you need to type chrome://settings/syncSetup in the address bar of your Chrome browser. On the page you’ll get, you need to disable the entry for History. And while we are here, you can also disable the entry for Addresses using Google Pay and the one for Payment Methods.
