Company
Date Published
Author
Martin Bajanik
Word count
1025
Language
English
Hacker News points
None

Summary

Chromium's lesser-known features, Lookalike Warnings and Site Engagement, can inadvertently expose users' frequently visited sites to potentially untrustworthy websites. Site Engagement scores, which track user interaction with websites, are also reflected in incognito sessions, raising privacy concerns as they cannot be disabled. The Lookalike Warnings, introduced in Chrome 75, aim to protect users from phishing attacks by identifying websites that mimic popular domains. These warnings vary in confidence and are only shown for sites the user hasn't frequently visited, but this functionality can be exploited to determine a user's site engagement, as specially crafted URLs trigger warnings based on a user's browsing habits. Although Lookalike Warnings enhance security against social engineering attacks, the inability to disable Site Engagement or these warnings highlights potential privacy risks, especially in targeted attacks that could expose browsing history. Raising awareness of these issues allows users to consider alternative protective measures, like guest profiles in Chrome, to mitigate privacy concerns.