Chrome Enterprise improves work and personal profile separation and brings more advanced protections for unmanaged devices

For many employees, the browser has become where they spend the majority of their working day. As more work is being done on the web, IT and security teams continue to invest in enterprise browsing experiences that offer more protections for corporate data, while making it easy for employees to get work done. Chrome Enterprise has given businesses the best of both worlds—allowing workers to use the browser they are most familiar with and giving IT and security leaders the advanced protections and controls to safeguard their business.

Whether it is the foundational policies and customizations available to all businesses through Chrome Enterprise Core, or the advanced data protections and secure access capabilities available in Chrome Enterprise Premium, businesses can count on Chrome to help keep employees productive and safe.

New improvements to Chrome Enterprise are continuing to level up how employees experience their enterprise browser with better transparency around the separation of work and personal browsing. This helps build more trust from employees, offering them better visibility into how data types are treated differently by their organization when using Chrome, especially when they are using their personal devices for work. IT and security teams can also benefit from enhanced profile reporting and data protections for unmanaged devices using Chrome profiles, ideal for bring your own device (BYOD) environments.

More transparency for corporate browsers

Many organizations are using the browser as a secure endpoint, enforcing secure access to critical apps and data for employees and contractors right at the browser layer. With the browser playing a more critical role in daily work, it’s more important than ever for IT teams to make it clear to employees that they are logged into a corporate browsing experience that is managed and monitored by their company. Chrome Enterprise makes this easier to signal than ever before by now allowing organizations to customize browser profiles with their company logo.

Companies can create a branded Chrome profile experience for their users while they work on the web. This clear visual identity helps employees understand that they are working in a secure enterprise profile, distinct from their personal browsing experience. Within the enterprise profile, additional settings and controls may be in place, and employees can get more information about what their companies are managing.

Employees will see more clearly that they are in a managed browser profile, and they can go a level deeper to understand more about their work browser. This allows IT and security teams to offer more visibility to their users about the protections in place.

In the upcoming releases of Chrome, even if IT teams do not customize the browser experience with their logo, if companies apply policies to their browser profile, employees will receive an indication that they are in a managed “Work” profile environment.

More streamlined sign in experience

For businesses using Google Workspace or Google Identity, employees will see a new sign in experience when they sign into their Chrome profile for work. This updated experience gives users more visibility into what’s being managed and shared with their organization as soon as they sign in, and it allows them to create a separate profile for work to keep their bookmarks, history, and more, distinct from their personal profile.

New Chrome Profile Reporting

While the experience for employees is improving for Chrome Profiles, we’ve recently also added more capabilities for IT teams. Now, enterprises can turn on reporting for signed-in managed users across platforms including Windows, Mac, Linux, and Android. In one streamlined view they can get critical information about browser versions, the operating system, policies, extensions and whether the device is corporate managed or personal. This is ideal for getting more visibility into BYOD or contractor scenarios.

Applying additional protections through managed profiles on unmanaged devices

Through Chrome profiles, enterprises can even enforce secure access and data protections on devices that are personally owned or unmanaged. Once signed into a work Chrome profile, organizations can use Chrome Enterprise Premium to apply critical data controls and make access decisions for business apps. For example, your company can require a contractor to log into a work Chrome profile to access a CRM tool, but copy and paste restrictions or screen shot blocking can be turned on for added protections. This offers an easy and secure way to ensure company policies are enforced on both managed and unmanaged devices, right through Chrome.

Getting started with Chrome Profiles

Organizations can customize Chrome to show their organization's logo and name today using Chrome Enterprise Core, which is available to all businesses at no additional cost. They can also manage Chrome profiles, get reporting at the profile level and get security insights. If they want to apply more advanced data protections and enforce context aware access, they can try out Chrome Enterprise Premium.