Google Gives Warning on Repeat Offenders of Safe Browsing

google-gives-warning-on-repeat-offenders-of-safe-browsing

For such a long time, Safe Browsing has been protecting users from any harm on the internet, and has evolved over the years to adapt to the changing nature of threats and user harm. Today, many sites have to violate Google’s Malware, Unwanted Software, Phishing, and Social Engineering Policies show warnings until Google verifies that the site is no longer harmful. The verification can be triggered automatically, or at the request of the webmaster via the Search Console. The verification can be triggered automatically, or at the request of the web developer via the Search console.

In fact, now Google will give warning to those site owners who are maliciously breaking Google’s Safe Browsing policies over and over again. The warning is shown when a user is about to visit a site that having any violation of Google’s Malware, Unwanted Software, Phishing, and Social Engineering Policies.

The warning will stop when Google considers that the site is no longer harmful. However, a site may have to wait just long enough to get the warning removed, and get back to their old activities  and do the harmful practices right after the warning have been removed.

Due to this gap in user protection, we have adjusted our policies to reduce risks borne by end users. Safe Browsing will start to classify these types of sites as “Repeat Offenders.” Repeat offenders are websites that repeatedly switch between compliant and policy violating behavior for the purpose of having a successful review and having warnings removed.

Bear in mind, that a site can be considered as repeat offender, only if their sites intentionally publish harmful content. By this means, a site that happens to get repeatedly hacked will not be considered a repeat offender.

A site which has undergone Google warning related to an actual repeat offender has to bear this warning on their site for at least 30 days. An email will be sent to web developer’s email address associated with Search Console, when Google has identified a site as a repeat offender.