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Google has updated the enhanced protection feature with some AI spice to offer real-time protection against malicious websites, downloads, and extensions on Chrome. The update has spent nearly three months in testing and has finally been rolled out to the browser’s stable update channel.
The feature will be disabled by default but can be enabled via Chrome settings on Windows, Android, and iOS. According to Google, browsing data will be sent to its servers for the feature to work, but the search giant hasn’t explained much on how the feature is different from its previous “non-AI” variant. Regardless, Google could be using AI to scan browsing data and any downloads or extensions to look for known malicious patterns in real-time as the user is browsing the internet and show warnings about harmful sites, including those it may not have previously flagged.
Browsing data sent to Google for the feature to work includes URLs of the sites you visit and a small sample of page content. Additionally, downloads, extension activity, and system information are also relayed to the company’s servers. If you’re logged into Chrome, this data is then linked to your Google account to “protect you across Google services.”
Given Chrome’s sluggish performance and reputation for being slower or clunkier compared to other popular browsers, there is a chance that real-time AI processing might slow the browser further. However, Google notes that the feature doesn’t “noticeably slow down your browser or device.”
The change seems to mostly be a cosmetic one, though, as the only obvious change is the way the feature is phrased. On older versions, the enhanced protection feature’s description claims that the feature takes “proactive measures” to root out harmful sites or content, while the update phrasing clearly states that this is in fact “AI-powered protection.”
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