Chrome to Alert Users on Fake Play, Close, Download Buttons and Misleading Ads

Bad news for those website owners who trick their readers/users into clicking on fake ads and tricky downloads — Google Chrome is coming to get you for good.

In December 2015, Google started supporting Safe Browsing technology, which was introduced to block those websites that were famous spots for phishing and social engineering attacks. While only those websites that offered PUPs (Potentially Unwanted Programs) were the focus back then, the scope of Google’s Safe Browsing technology has expanded much more today as it now includes various types of known attack vectors.

Perhaps, some webmasters would need to keep their schedules accommodative in the coming weeks for they might need time to review the advertising standards on their websites. They will have to delete ads that display fake messages or download buttons. The delete-worthy stuff includes ads that are misleading, that is, those which pass as updates or errors from different OS functions or third-party software, dialogs from famous software and deceptive close, play and download buttons.

Any website that employs the above-mentioned tactics will be flagged by Google Chrome and the radius of this scrutiny will be extended to the visitors accessing these websites as they will be prompted with a classic Safe Browsing full-screen message. The message will warn them about the potential dangers that they could face if they continue to navigate the website.

These types of ads such as those we often see at Softpedia are quite troubling for us all. However, it is also hard to find advertisers that don’t buy ad impressions on your website without intending to misuse the space for displaying sneaky and misleading content to users.

Although most of the times these ads are plain annoying but not that harmful. However, every now and then we are fed with some malware or PUPs laden ads, which is exactly what Google is trying to prevent. Google is basically attempting to expand the scope of its Safe Browsing facility in order to discourage these deceptive, malicious advertisements by warning the users in advance.