Chrome updates privacy protection and Incognito mode

Google has recently changed its Chrome browser, promising to keep users even safer as they browse. The main areas in which these changes are being made are the Safe Browsing feature and Incognito mode. Let’s take a closer look. 

Real-time protection update

Chrome has a Safe Browsing feature built into the browser, which you can implement for added protection against threats like abusive sites and extensions, malware, phishing attempts, and more. The three protection levels are:

• Enhanced protection
• Standard protection
• No protection

Previously, this feature worked by continually crawling the web to find harmful sites to add to its database. So when you visited a new website or tried to download something, Chrome checked that this site wasn’t on their no-go list. 

The main issue with this method is that Google only updates this list every 30-60 minutes, but malicious sites often exist for less than ten minutes. Although the Enhanced protection option protects against this by catching unsafe URLs in real-time with Google’s Safe Browsing server-side database, it requires more browsing data to be sent to Google, which not everybody is comfortable with. 

So the real-time protection update should be welcome news for those who want better browsing protections without having to hand over more private information. Google says the update adds encryption and other privacy-enhancing techniques to ensure no identifying information is sent.

This update will also be available on the Standard protection setting.

Changes to Incognito browsing

Google has also agreed to destroy or de-identify web browsing data collected in Chrome’s Incognito mode following the settlement of a proposed class action settlement. Incognito mode is the browser’s private browsing feature, which lets users surf the web without activity data being saved to their device or Google account.

In a statement, Google spokesperson José Castañeda referred to the class action as “meritless”, stating:

“We never associate data with users when they use Incognito mode. We are happy to delete old technical data that was never associated with an individual and was never used for any form of personalization.”
Even so, Chrome has updated the text in Incognito mode to be more transparent about the limitations of private browsing, including the fact that the websites you visit may still collect data. However, for the next five years, third-party cookies will now be blocked by default in Incognito mode to prevent Google from tracking users on outside websites.