Google Chrome to Crack Down on Abusive In-Browser Notifications

A Google Chrome update coming in July will crack down on intrusive browser notifications.

The change deals with how websites display permission windows in Chrome that ask you to subscribe to their notifications. If you click "allow," the website can send you pop-up windows with announcements or news.

But according to Google, a small fraction of websites have been abusing the notification feature. In some cases, the culprits tell visitors they must accept notifications in order to view their website. In other cases, the abusive websites have been using the notifications to send out pop-ups to trick users into handing over personal information or to direct users to downloading unwanted software, including malware. 

“Abusive notification prompts are one of the top user complaints we receive about Chrome,” the company said in a blog post on Thursday. “A large percentage of notification requests and notifications come from a small number of abusive sites.”

With the Chrome 80 release, which arrived in February, Google began addressing the problem with what’s called the “quieter notification permission UI.” As the name suggests, the function is designed to reduce the number of intrusive notification requests coming from websites. 

However, the setting is opt-in. Chrome will only automatically apply the blocking in two scenarios. The first is for users who typically deny notification permissions. The second is for websites with very low opt-in rates on notification subscriptions. Otherwise, users have to manually activate the quieter permission UI on their own by going into the Chrome browser settings. 

Now Google is adding a third use case. The company will automatically turn on the quieter permission UI for websites that have been flagged for abusing the notification prompts. The change will roll out on July 14 in the Chrome 84 release. 

“Only a small fraction of websites will be affected by this change but we expect the impact on notification volumes will be significant for some users,” Google added. 

The other change to the quieter permission UI is how it'll serve up warnings about why it blocked the notification from the abusive website. “This site may be trying to trick you into allowing intrusive notifications,” the disclaimer will read.

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However, the company is only implementing the change for new notification permission requests from abusive sites. So the block won’t occur on any platforms to which you're already subscribed. “In the future, we may add protections for users who have already accepted notification permissions from abusive sites,” the company added. 

To configure your notifications on Chrome, click on the three-dot icon in the upper-right corner. Then go to Settings > Site Settings > Notifications. You’ll then be able to view which sites are blocked or allowed. In same window, you can also turn on the quieter permission UI. 

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