Enhanced Safe Browsing in Gmail Might Not Be the Solution You’re Hoping For

Have you tried using Enhanced Safe Browsing in your Google Chrome browser? This feature has been a part of the browser since 2019, and it was implemented with the intention of preventing phishing attacks. This feature was also recently added to Gmail. Here’s how you enable it, as well as why it might not be the solution you’re hoping for.

Let’s Discuss Enhanced Safe Browsing

Enhanced Safe Browsing was originally created to warn people about links that the browser thought were too suspicious for any reason. This helped to minimize problems associated with malware, phishing attacks, and other similar threats. It stands to reason that this feature would be helpful in Gmail, too, hence why Google implemented the feature in its email solution.

Enhanced Safe Browsing will scan all links and attachments to compare them to Google’s database of known scams and malicious websites. Google updates this database every half-hour, so it’s reasonably up-to-date at any given time.

Enabling Enhanced Safe Browsing

To turn on safe browsing for your Gmail, you first need to make sure you are logged into your Google Account. From here, go to Security > Manage Enhanced Safe Browsing. This will activate safe browsing for your Gmail, and any other Google products you use, like Chrome, including your extensions and file downloads.

Of course, this doesn’t come without a tradeoff, and it’s the big reason why you might hesitate to enable safe browsing.

Safe Browsing Gives Google Access to Personal Data

While this feature might give you considerable protection from phishing attacks and other security threats, it comes at a cost: Google knowing how you use their products. Google claims that this data is anonymized after a short period of time, but studies have shown that this is not necessarily the case—at least, not to the level that you would hope to expect.

We recommend that businesses don’t use this feature, as it does not compare to more powerful solutions that companies can implement. Instead, we recommend that you implement a security training process for your team in conjunction with enterprise-grade security solutions that are not Gmail-exclusive.

Your business’ security should never be an afterthought; OnSite I.T. can help you make it a priority. To learn more, call us today at (403) 210-2927.