Google Inc. announced today in Chrome, that will abandon the standard safe browsing (Safe Browsing) function, in the next few weeks, all browser users will migrate to the enhanced safe browsing (Enhanced Safe Browsing) function, to improve the safety of users online.
Google introduced the Safe Browsing (Safe Browsing) feature in Chrome in 2007 to protect users from malicious websites and created a local blacklist of malicious URLs, which displays a full-screen warning once a user visits a website on the list.
Google says that because this URL blacklist is hosted locally and can’t be updated dynamically, it’s launching Enhanced Safe Browsing in 2020, which checks Google’s cloud database in real-time to confirm that the site a user is visiting is malicious.
However, this also leads to privacy issues, as Google Chrome sends the URL address of the user’s visit, as well as the download link, to Google’s servers to check that the links are not malicious. The transmitted data also temporarily connects to your Google account to detect if an attack is targeting your browser or account.
Google announced today that it will be rolling out enhanced secure browsing features to all Chrome users in the coming weeks, without returning to older versions.
Google has confirmed to BleepingComputer that data submitted to the company’s servers through Enhanced Safe Browsing will not be used for other functions, including placing ads.
