March 14, 2024 at 02:06PM
Google has upgraded Safe Browsing in Chrome for desktop, iOS, and soon Android, providing real-time protection against risky websites without sharing browsing history with Google. The enhanced service uses real-time URL lookups and machine learning, while the Standard version now supports privacy-preserving real-time data lookup. It employs a technical enhancement to prevent network calls from degrading user experience.
Summary:
Google has upgraded its Safe Browsing service to offer real-time protection in Chrome for desktop, iOS, and soon for Android, without compromising user privacy. The service, available in Standard and Enhanced versions, had relied on locally stored lists of suspect sites, which limited the effectiveness of the protection. To address this, the Standard version will now support real-time data lookup without sending browsing history data to Google. This upgrade is in response to privacy regulations in Europe and elsewhere. The system works by first checking a local cache file for known safe websites and, if not found, conducting a real-time check. Encrypted hash prefixes of the URL are sent to an Oblivious HTTP (OHTTP) privacy server, operated by Fastly, and then forwarded to the Google Safe Browsing server. This process ensures that browsing activity remains private, as no single party has access to both the user’s identity and the hash prefixes. Google has also announced that Password Checkup on iOS will now identify weak and reused passwords, in addition to flagging compromised passwords.
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