Google Chrome Enhances Safe Browsing Feature

Google Chrome Enhances Safe Browsing Feature/Google

VoM News Desk | March 16, 2024 | 11:05 PM IST | Tech, Technology | Follow on Google News

Google Chrome Enhances Safe Browsing Feature/Google

Google Chrome Enhances Safe Browsing Feature

Google Chrome introduces a major upgrade to its Safe Browsing feature, aimed at enhancing user privacy and security. The new privacy-preserving real-time link scanning mechanism utilizes an independently operated server to check encrypted versions of URLs before loading web pages.

Real-Time Protection Protocol

The upgraded Safe Browsing feature includes a real-time protection protocol, which offers more effective defense against unsafe sites. While the ‘standard’ version remains highly effective, the ‘enhanced’ version provides added protection against specific threats.

How it Works & Privacy Measures

When users visit a website, Chrome initially checks the locally stored list of websites for malicious URLs. If the URL is not in the database, Chrome performs a real-time check by hashing and encrypting the URL before sending it to a third-party ‘privacy’ server operated by Fastly.

The third-party server strips away potential user information and mixes requests with those of other users before sending them to Google’s Safe Browsing server. Google then matches the truncated prefixes with its server-side database, issuing a warning if a match with an unsafe URL is found.

Benefits & Availability

The real-time, privacy-preserving Safe Browsing feature allows for immediate blocking of unsafe sites upon detection. Moreover, the server-side scanning enables a larger list of unsafe sites compared to locally stored databases.

The upgrade is now available for Chrome users on iOS, Windows, macOS, and Linux. Android users can expect the feature to roll out over the coming weeks. Additionally, users seeking enhanced protection can opt for the AI-based ‘enhanced’ version, which also includes Chrome extension and file scanning capabilities.

VoM News Desk

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