Google is using Gmail to nag you to turn on Enhanced Safe Browsing
Data breaches have unfortunately become commonplace these days, and consumers navigating the dodgy internet landscape are the usual targets. Affected users are often advised to change their passwords. Thanks to Google Chrome's Enhanced Safe Browsing, online threats can now be predicted before they happen, and users are able to receive a warning when their credentials are exposed in a data breach. However, the feature is buried deep in Chrome's Settings menu, which makes enabling this web protection tool quite a chore. Google is now promoting it in an app with billions of users: Gmail.
A number of Gmail users, including this writer and Android Police founder Artem Russakovskii, have been seeing a notification at the top of their inboxes over the past few days with a prompt to enable the security feature.
It's essentially a reminder that Google has a proactive security tool against threats, and tapping on the popup leads you to a web page where you can toggle the feature on.
The promotional message shows up just above the Gmail inbox on Android and the web, as noted by 9to5Google. In the screenshots below, you can see the popup prompting you to "Get additional protection against phishing" and "Turn on Enhanced Safe Browsing to get additional protection against dangerous emails."
2 Images Close
While having to hit "No thanks" might be a little annoying if you're not interested in the feature, it does save you a few taps if you wish to enable Chrome's holistic security protection against dangerous websites, downloads, and extensions. Otherwise, you can take the long route by tapping the three-dot menu on Chrome for Android, selecting Settings, and opening the Privacy and security section. Then, tap Safe browsing to view all the security options available, which include standard protection and no protection in addition to enhanced protection.
It's important to note that enabling this protection on one device carries over to the others. However, enabling these safeguards also grants Google access to detailed information about your browsing habits. This is because when you log in to Chrome, your browsing data is temporarily linked to your Google account. The goal is to tailor protections to your account, and Google notes that this data is anonymized after a short period of time.
Source: Android Police
