Chrome's Safer Browsing Update
- Google claims the new system can detect 25% more phishing attacks, enhancing security for users.
- The update is being rolled out to desktop and iOS users, with Android support coming soon.
- Google's Safe Browsing service and Fastly's servers ensure user privacy by not accessing IP addresses and not viewing encrypted URLs, respectively.
Google's Safe Browsing feature in Chrome has undergone a major transformation. Instead of the previous method of downloading a list of harmful sites every hour, Chrome will now send the URLs you visit to Google's servers in real-time. This means you'll receive an updated list much quicker, as most malicious sites only last for about 10 minutes.
Google claims that this new system can detect 25% more phishing attacks and is currently being rolled out to desktop and iOS users, with Android support on the way.
The Enhanced Mode has always been optional and will remain so, despite Google's efforts to encourage users to enable it since last year.
One of the most interesting aspects of this update is the privacy server. Google has teamed up with Fastly, a specialist in CDN and edge computing, to utilize Fastly's Oblivious HTTP privacy server.
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Fastly created this privacy service to act as a middleman between users and a web application, anonymizing their metadata while still allowing data exchange with the web application. It's important to note that these servers are operated independently by Fastly.
Thanks to this setup, Google's Safe Browsing service will never have access to your IP address. Furthermore, Fastly won't be able to view the encrypted URLs since they are encrypted by the browser using a public-private key that Fastly does not possess.
Edited by Shruti Thapa
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