Google Safe Browsing
{{short description|Service that warns about malicious URLs}}
{{Advert|date=October 2019}}
{{Infobox software
| title = Google Safe Browsing
| name = Google Safe Browsing
| logo = File:Google Safe Browsing.svg
| logo size = 100px
| screenshot = Google Safe Browsing warning in Chromium v127.png
| screenshot size = 230px
| caption = Screenshot of the Google Safe Browsing warning in the Android version of Chromium blocking a deceptive site.
| collapsible = yes
| author = Google
| developer = Google
| operating system = Android, ChromeOS, Windows, macOS, iOS
| genre = Internet Security
| website = {{URL|https://safebrowsing.google.com}}
}}
Google Safe Browsing is a service from Google that warns users when they attempt to navigate to a dangerous website or download dangerous files. Safe Browsing also notifies webmasters when their websites are compromised by malicious actors and helps them diagnose and resolve the problem. This protection works across Google products and is claimed to “power safer browsing experiences across the Internet”.{{Cite web|title=Google Safe Browsing|url=https://safebrowsing.google.com/|access-date=2021-12-29|website=safebrowsing.google.com|language=en}} It lists URLs for web resources that contain malware or phishing content.{{cite web|url=http://searchengineland.com/googles-safe-browsing-diagnostic-tool-14064|title=Google's Safe Browsing Diagnostic Tool|first=Barry|last=Schwartz|publisher=Search Engine Land|date=May 23, 2008 |access-date=2012-09-01}}{{cite web|url=https://www.pcworld.com/article/245373/google_safe_browsing_alerts_network_admins_about_malware_distribution_domains.html|title=Google Safe Browsing Alerts Network Admins About Malware Distribution Domains|date=Dec 2, 2011|first=Lucian|last=Constantin|publisher=PCWorld.com|access-date=2012-09-01}} Browsers like Google Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Vivaldi, Brave, and GNOME Web use these lists from Google Safe Browsing to check pages against potential threats.{{cite web|url=https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/how-does-phishing-and-malware-protection-work|title=Firefox Phishing and Malware Protection|publisher=Mozilla Foundation|access-date=2012-09-01}}{{cite web|url=https://support.google.com/chrome/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=99020|title=Phishing and malware detection |access-date=2012-09-01|work=Google Inc.}} Google also provides a public API for the service.{{cite web|url=https://developers.google.com/safe-browsing/|title=Safe Browsing API|access-date=2012-09-01|work=Google Inc.}}
Google provides information to Internet service providers, by sending email alerts to autonomous system operators regarding threats hosted on their networks. As of September 2017, over 3 billion Internet devices use this service.{{cite web|url=https://www.blog.google/technology/safety-security/safe-browsing-protecting-more-3-billion-devices-worldwide-automatically/|title=Safe Browsing: Protecting more than 3 billion devices worldwide, automatically|date=September 2017|publisher=The Google Blog}} Alternatives are offered by both Tencent and Yandex.{{Cite book|last1=Gerbet|first1=Thomas|last2=Kumar|first2=Amrit|last3=Lauradoux|first3=Cedric|title=2016 46th Annual IEEE/IFIP International Conference on Dependable Systems and Networks (DSN) |chapter=A Privacy Analysis of Google and Yandex Safe Browsing |date=June 2016|location=Toulouse, France|publisher=IEEE|pages=347–358|doi=10.1109/DSN.2016.39|isbn=978-1-4673-8891-7|s2cid=17276613|chapter-url=https://hal.inria.fr/hal-01120186/file/RR8686.pdf}}
Privacy
Google maintains the Safe Browsing Lookup API, which has a privacy drawback: "The URLs to be looked up are not hashed so the server knows which URLs the API users have looked up". The Safe Browsing Update API, on the other hand, compares 32-bit hash prefixes of the URL to preserve privacy.{{cite web|url=https://developers.google.com/safe-browsing/developers_guide_v3|title=Developer's Guide (v3)|date=18 March 2015|work=Google Developers}}{{cite web|url=https://developers.google.com/safe-browsing/|title=Safe Browsing API - Google Developers|date=18 March 2015|work=Google Developers}} The Chrome, Firefox, and Safari browsers use the latter.{{cite web|url=http://www.zdnet.com/blog/bott/did-google-withhold-malware-protection-details-from-partners/4484|title=Did Google withhold malware protection details from partners?|first=Ed|last=Bott|work=ZDNet}}
Safe Browsing also stores a mandatory preferences cookie on the computer.{{cite web|url=http://ashkansoltani.org/2012/02/25/cookies-from-nowhere/|title=Cookies from Nowhere|work=Ashkan Soltani|date=25 February 2012 }}
Google Safe Browsing "conducts client-side checks. If a website looks suspicious, it sends a subset of likely phishing and social engineering terms found on the page to Google to obtain additional information available from Google's servers on whether the website should be considered malicious". Logs, which include an IP address and one or more cookies, are kept for two weeks and are tied to the other Safe Browsing requests made from the same device.{{cite web|url=https://www.google.com/intl/en/chrome/browser/privacy/whitepaper.html|title=Google Chrome Privacy Whitepaper|work=google.com}}
In most applications, excluding Apple's Safari in which Apple uses a proxy system, the API is installed in a way that allows Google to continuously get the actual IP address of the user.{{cite web | url=https://the8-bit.com/apple-proxies-google-safe-browsing-privacy/ | title=Apple redirects Google Safe Browsing traffic through its own proxy servers to prevent disclosing users' IP addresses to Google in iOS 14.5 | date=9 February 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230214171257/https://the8-bit.com/apple-proxies-google-safe-browsing-privacy/|archive-date=14 February 2023 }} This enables Google to track users as they navigate the internet, send emails to Gmail accounts, or use Google services.
Criticism
Websites not containing malware have been blacklisted by Google Safe Browsing due to the presence of infected ads. Requesting removal from the blacklist requires the webmaster to create a Google Webmaster's Tool account and wait several days for the removal from the blacklist.{{Cite news |url=https://www.pcworld.com/article/192808/google_safe_browsing_makes_the_innocent_look_guilty.html |title=Google Safe Browsing Makes the Innocent Look Guilty |work=PCWorld |access-date=2018-07-29 |language=en |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210623154943/https://www.pcworld.com/article/192808/google_safe_browsing_makes_the_innocent_look_guilty.html |archive-date=23 June 2021 |url-status=dead}} There have also been concerns that Google Safe Browsing could be used for censorship in the future, however this has not yet happened.{{Cite web|date=22 June 2016|title=The New Censorship|url=https://www.usnews.com/opinion/articles/2016-06-22/google-is-the-worlds-biggest-censor-and-its-power-must-be-regulated}}
See also
References
{{reflist}}
{{Google LLC}}
External links
- [https://safebrowsing.google.com/ Safe Browsing Homepage]
- [https://www.google.com/transparencyreport/safebrowsing/ Transparency Report: Safe Browsing]