Chrome is planning to change the way it shows you alerts to let you know that you’re facing a risky situation. It doesn’t seem like it’s going to make changes to the algorithm, but rather to the way it shows alerts. And, as you’ll see, the browser is going to make a lot of use of a bright red color.
Google believes it needs to strengthen the way it informs users that there is a risk when they are using its browser. For the moment, the new alerts seem to be integrated into the notification of risky downloads, although it is possible that they will also end up being carried over to other moments in which Chrome can warn you about security problems.
Making changes to Safe Browsing
Chrome’s system that prevents you from downloading files that could be potentially malicious is called Safe Browsing. Thanks to this system, it is more than likely that we have avoided finding ourselves in a risky situation more than once. What Chrome does is block the file so that it cannot be easily downloaded.
If you want to download a blocked file, you have to go to the download menu and manually confirm that you want to download the item in question. However, Google has worked on this new alert screen as a way of trying to further reduce infection levels.
How will it work?
Right now, when you try to download a malicious file, Chrome blocks it and leaves it marked in the download list. However, it is possible to download the document in question from the download history. The only thing Chrome asks for is confirmation that you really want to download the file, informing you of the risk involved. In the last step, the button is displayed as follows: “Download risky file”.
Google, as we said, probably thinks that this is not enough. Because of this, they are going to incorporate this full-screen warning screen with a very prominent red color where they will try to make us see the risk we are exposing ourselves to. In it, they first inform us of the risk we are facing with this file, mentioning that it may come from a suspicious website. However, we are allowed to click on the “Continue anyway” button.
When we do this, Chrome displays the second warning and asks us why we want to download it. We will be given three options: “I created this file”, “I trust the page (indicating the address of the website in question)” and “I am willing to take the risk”. Whichever option we select, the result will be the same: we will be able to download the file. However, it can be understood that, if these options have been included, it is not only to warn the user before downloading, but also with the intention of collecting that data.
It would be understandable if Chrome were to store the responses so that it could better understand both the interest of users and the way in which specific files that could or could not be dangerous are downloaded. In any case, to get to that red alert screen you will have to go through a small process that will begin by entering the download section that Chrome has located at chrome://downloads/ and that you can see in this image.
The ultimate goal is to make everyday life safer for users, but it remains to be seen how this new alert screen is received by Chrome users. For some people, it may be an additional annoyance in cases where they know for a fact that the files they want to download do not pose any risk.
