MANILA, Philippines – Google is adding Safe Browsing protections to its Chrome browser for Android devices, extending its “protective umbrella to hundreds of millions of Chrome users on Android.”

The company announced the Safe Browsing client on Monday, December 7, saying that an Android user with Chrome version 46 and above should have the feature enabled by default.

While the Google Play Store and the Android platform have had protection from harmful apps for a while, Google says dangers to mobile users don’t come solely from applications. In the case of Google Chrome, it will warn users if a site is deceptive or is otherwise a social engineering trap designed to make a user give up his personal information.

One trade-off for users on mobile is that in order to save data for users, it is limiting its safety notices to specific regions.

Google explained, “Some social engineering attacks only happen in certain parts of the world, so we only send information that protects devices in the geographic regions they’re in.”

Working with Google’s compression team, they wanted to make sure all the information needed was sent with as small a data footprint as possible.

The feature is available now by going into your Chrome for Android privacy settings. While on by default, users can also deactivate the Safe Browsing option if they wish. – Rappler.com