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Microsoft Edge will notify you if your passwords have been compromised

And it will do it while preventing anyone from seeing your credentials.

Thomas Trutschel via Getty Images

Even if you use a password manager and two-factor authentication, there’s a good chance some of your login credentials have been exposed in the past thanks to hacks and leaks. Microsoft is introducing a new feature to Edge called Password Monitor so you don’t have to turn to a website like Engadget to find out one of your passwords has been compromised. The next time one of the passwords you have saved to Edge is included in a third-party data breach, you’ll be notified to change it. In that way, you can minimize any potential damage, particularly if you’ve reused that password anywhere else.

In a way, Microsoft is playing catch up here. Both Chrome and Firefox have offered similar functionality for the past few years, as have Password managers like 1Password and LastPass. However, what makes Microsoft’s offering intriguing then is that it’s using a relatively new type of approach called homomorphic encryption to ensure no one at the company, nor any other party, can find out your passwords. One of the ways the algorithm protects your data is by allowing a computer to interact with it without first decrypting the information. It also works with a variety of machines, including those with relatively old CPUs, so that anyone can take advantage of Password Monitor.