We’ve discussed “wrapping” before…the inclusion of unwanted software/toolbars/search engine and home page switchers…and now in light of the Lenovo Superfish and PrivDog issues Google has upped protection from these gems in Chrome.

“Two of the main sources for these bundled downloads are search engines and download portals. Search engines because of misleading ads and how they rank download sites, and download portals because many bundle offers with downloads automatically to make more money.” – gHacks (and here)

Well, we already get true and false positives when it comes to that now (false positive: Nirsoft: a 100% reputable site). Interestingly, WOT reports Nirsoft as trustworthy, and BitDefender doesn’t know. In Google, the ‘new warnings’ didn’t appear for me.

Now you’ll see an additional warning for sites with potentially harmful programs:

“The site ahead contains harmful programs

Attackers on [site] might attempt to trick you into installing programs that harm your browsing experience( for example, by changing your homepage or showing extra ads on sites you visit).”

It also has a “report” button for “possible security incidents” to Google, a “details” and “back to safety” buttons, as well. Well, if this is going to be another “reputation based” thing and open to abuse like the other reputation based filtering systems it’ll be not so great…unless Google really checks. If they check, it’ll be a good thing. If not, it’ll be used to harm competing businesses, political sites, etc.

Like Martin Brinkmann, I wonder if this will affect sites like Download.com, Sourceforge or Softonic…depending on how Google classifies them…and don’t forget: Google has business interests as well…

I also wonder if this will goad the folks at Duckduckgo to implement a similar system.

Sources:

http://www.ghacks.net/2015/02/24/google-improves-unwanted-software-protection-in-chrome-and-search/?_m=3n%2e0038%2e1529%2ehj0ao01hy5%2e1l1f