Microsoft recently launched their new Autofill solution, allowing users to easily fill in password to different websites across multiple devices, be they Windows products, Apple ones, or Android mobile phones.
Autofill isn't exactly a new feature. One encounters the feature in almost every other browser, with Google Chrome notoriously making a point of asking users if they'd like to save a newly used password or not via a pop-up textbox. It's use on such an accessible scale, however, marks fresher territory. Via a bunch of tools easily available to the general public, autofill passwords can be carried on across multiple devices. The tools one can employ in such endeavors include the Google Authenticator app across iOS and Android, a Chrome web extension, or even Microsoft Edge in and of itself.
A Windows Experience blog post highlighted the autofill solution, and filled users up on its actual implementation and use. A few things of note are highlighted accordingly, the biggest of these being that users are required to have a Microsoft account in order to rely on the solution, since it is ultimately the account that stores such sensitive information. Assuring users of the product's security, the blog post then goes on to discuss the Chrome extension, easily downloaded from the Chrome Web Store.
It even highlights how the Authenticator app functions, asking users to save their login ID and passwords across multiple websites, much like Chrome, and then intuitively offers users their pick of email ID, and accordingly fills out the relevant passwords. The Authenticator app even goes as far as to offer its userbase an Import feature, that allows users to carry over ID and password combinations from the likes of Google Chrome, or even available CSV files.
Finally, touching up on the previously raised security concerns, the Authenticator app requires multifactorial authentication in order to login, protecting a user's online image from being exploited by hackers and phishing attacks. Which is a nice sentiment, considering the alarming number of such privacy breaches and their frequency.
Only recently, numerous Facebook IDs and their phone numbers were made available on a Telegram bot, while a cybersecurity magazine revealed that over three billion email IDs and passwords were spread on illicit online forums.
All in all, while the convenience of being easily able to login across multiple platforms with a few simple clicks is rather tempting, only time will tell how effective or detrimental this proves to the average user.
Read next: Microsoft Edge, While On the Rise, Still Has a Long Way to Go Before Overtaking Google Chrome
Autofill isn't exactly a new feature. One encounters the feature in almost every other browser, with Google Chrome notoriously making a point of asking users if they'd like to save a newly used password or not via a pop-up textbox. It's use on such an accessible scale, however, marks fresher territory. Via a bunch of tools easily available to the general public, autofill passwords can be carried on across multiple devices. The tools one can employ in such endeavors include the Google Authenticator app across iOS and Android, a Chrome web extension, or even Microsoft Edge in and of itself.
A Windows Experience blog post highlighted the autofill solution, and filled users up on its actual implementation and use. A few things of note are highlighted accordingly, the biggest of these being that users are required to have a Microsoft account in order to rely on the solution, since it is ultimately the account that stores such sensitive information. Assuring users of the product's security, the blog post then goes on to discuss the Chrome extension, easily downloaded from the Chrome Web Store.
It even highlights how the Authenticator app functions, asking users to save their login ID and passwords across multiple websites, much like Chrome, and then intuitively offers users their pick of email ID, and accordingly fills out the relevant passwords. The Authenticator app even goes as far as to offer its userbase an Import feature, that allows users to carry over ID and password combinations from the likes of Google Chrome, or even available CSV files.
Finally, touching up on the previously raised security concerns, the Authenticator app requires multifactorial authentication in order to login, protecting a user's online image from being exploited by hackers and phishing attacks. Which is a nice sentiment, considering the alarming number of such privacy breaches and their frequency.
Only recently, numerous Facebook IDs and their phone numbers were made available on a Telegram bot, while a cybersecurity magazine revealed that over three billion email IDs and passwords were spread on illicit online forums.
All in all, while the convenience of being easily able to login across multiple platforms with a few simple clicks is rather tempting, only time will tell how effective or detrimental this proves to the average user.
Read next: Microsoft Edge, While On the Rise, Still Has a Long Way to Go Before Overtaking Google Chrome
