Last week Google announced they will soon be marking websites that don’t use HTTPS encryption with a red X in the Chrome toolbar. Their goal is to make it clearer to users which sites don’t protect data. This week, Google has taken a step further and has launched their Safe Browsing technology that will warn users of Chrome, Safari or Mozilla Firefox when they encounter image ads or other embedded content in Web pages that Google deems as malicious or potentially unsafe.

Starting this week, when users encounter potentially risky advertisements or downloads Google’s Safe Browsing will pop up an alert. The notification will warn users about the potential for being tricked into installing potentially harmful software or sharing personal information like passwords. The alert will also provide an option for sharing the incident details with Google.

Google’s Safe Browsing has developed specific criteria for identifying and marking ads and other embedded content as potentially malicious or unsafe. For instance, if an ad will be considered used for social engineering purposes if it pretends to act, look and feel like a trusted device, browser or part of a website itself. If an ad tries to trick a user into an action they would normally only take with a trusted source, it will be labeled as dangerous. If a website consistently uses social engineering content, users may be warned each time they visit the site itself. Sites that have been flagged will have to fix the problem in order for Google to stop the alerts. Sites that ignore the alerts run the risk of being labeled as insecure and pushed down or even ignored in search engine results.

Google introduced Safe Browsing about eight years ago as a way to warn Internet users about interacting with websites that were used for phishing purposes or relaying spam or installing malware. Since it’s inception, the technology helps uncover an average of 90,000 phishing sites and 50,000 malware-distribution sites every month.

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