Google Safe Browsing Comes To Android Web

Ever since the early, AOL-inspired days of the Internet, the average consumer has known the dangers that inadvertently visiting compromised sites poses for the health of a computer. However, with the profusion of connected portable devices nowadays, is the mobile Web protected like its desktop counterpart?

Fortunately, Google just took a major step to ensure that it would be from now on. Google announced Monday (Dec. 7) that it had made its Safe Browsing feature standard for all mobile users running the mobile version of Chrome on Android operating systems. Just like how Chrome on desktops would flash red screens and ask for user permission to enter sites Google deemed untrustworthy or suspicious, mobile users will now have the same protections afforded to them.

The Verge explained that this service had been available to Chrome mobile users, but only if they enabled a little-known data compression service in phones’ settings panels. However, even that feature only covered activity performed with the Chrome mobile client. The new Google Safe Browsing platform will also monitor signs for compromised sites within and between apps, adding another layer of security on mobile devices that are becoming more ubiquitous every day.

“We hunt badness on the Internet so that you don’t discover it the hard way, and our protection should never be an undue burden on your networking costs or your device’s battery,” Google’s Safe Browsing and Chrome teams said in a statement. “As more of the world relies on the mobile Web, we want to make sure you’re as safe as can be, as efficiently as possible.”

A mobile Web stewarded by a company as robust as Google should come as a boon for retailers that rely on communications and sales through the platform. The more confident consumers are that their financial information isn’t subject to compromise on their phones, the more likely they’ll be comfortable with pulling out their smartphones for a little retail therapy no matter where they are.