14 DAY TRIAL // Notifications are one very useful feature on the web today, but while more and more people use it, malicious actors are also looking for more complex ways of embedding them into their nefarious tactics.
And Google knows this best, as the company admits that browser notifications aren’t always used for their main purpose and end up as a tool to push malware or get access to private user information.
The company plans to fight all of these by adding sites with abusive permission requests and abusive notifications to the quieter notifications UI. Users will be warned when a website tries to trick them into clicking a specific notification beginning with Chrome 84, which will go live for everyone on July 14, 2020.
“Abusive notification prompts are one of the top user complaints we receive about Chrome. A large percentage of notification requests and notifications come from a small number of abusive sites. Protecting users from these sites improves user safety & privacy on the web, and makes for a better browsing experience,” Google explains.
“Only a small fraction of websites will be affected by this change but we expect the impact on notification volumes will be significant for some users.”
Coming to other Chromium browsers too
Needless to say, there’s a chance that similar improvements would go live in other Chromium-powered browsers too, including Microsoft Edge itself.
Google says that at first, the new protection system will only affect new notification permission requests from websites that are considered to be abusive. The warning will read:
“Notifications blocked: This site may be trying to trick you into allowing intrusive notifications.”
However, the company says it’s already exploring long-term improvements, including protections for users who have already enabled notifications from abusive sites, thus making sure that more Google Chrome users are protected.