Summary
Google Chrome Extensions can potentially be a source of security threats and privacy issues for computers. For example, in August 2022, it was discovered that 1.4 million users were affected by five malicious extensions. [Source] This document describes some preventative measures and best practices for managing extensions.
Managed Accounts for Families
Parents commonly want controls and oversight for privacy and security of younger family members who use Google services. This is achieved in the following way:
- Setup a free Family Group as explained here https://families.google
- When the Family Group is setup, to manage it, you can go here https://g.co/yourfamily
or alternatively, this page https://myaccount.google.com/family/details - When you add a child’s account, it is a restricted user account with parental controls and oversight. This is explained on Google’s website. [Read More]
These are additional support guides:
- Add a parent to your family group [View]
- Add & manage supervision on an existing Google Account [View]
- Manage your child’s Google Account with Family Link [View]
Managed Accounts for Institutions
The free Family Group features described above are not as extensive as those available to institutions and businesses using Google Workspace. [Learn More]
The cost for Google Workspace is based on a per user fee. [View Pricing]
For schools or businesses using centrally managed Google accounts, restrictions can be made to prevent installation of Google Chrome Extensions. This is explained on Google’s website:
“As an administrator, you can automatically install Chrome apps and extensions on users’ computers. You can also control which apps or extensions users can install. You set the default policies for all apps and extensions. Then, if you want to customize policies for specific apps or extensions, you can override your defaults.” [Source]
Further Reading
The following resources may be helpful for managing Chrome. These instructions are only useful to people who are administrators.
- Allow or block apps and extensions — “As a Chrome Enterprise admin, you can control which apps or extensions users can install on managed Chrome browsers or ChromeOS devices. This article gives a high-level overview of how to set policies for all users or customize settings for different groups.” [View]
- Set Chrome app and extension policies for Apple Mac computers — “As an administrator, you can automatically install Chrome apps and extensions on users’ computers. You can also control which apps or extensions users can install. You set the default policies for all apps and extensions. Then, if you want to customize policies for specific apps or extensions, you can override your defaults.” [View]
- Sign in to your Admin console — “Let’s make sure you’re in the right place. These steps are for admins who manage Google Accounts for a company, school, or other group. … If you have access to an administrator (or admin) account, you can sign in to the Google Admin console. The Admin console is where admins manage Google services for people in an organization.” [View]
