A security-based newsletter entered my Inbox Tuesday afternoon and, like a gerbil, I immediately clicked it open to see what kind of shenanigans were going on in the world of cybersecurity.\u00a0 You can imagine how intrigued I was at the following title:\u00a0 \u201cChrome Is Scanning Files on Your Computer, and People Are Freaking Out.\u201d<\/p>\n
Well, that certainly got my attention, and I clicked on the link to read the article at Motherboard, and a lot of the associated links, and those associated stories and their links, and before I knew it, more than 30 minutes had gone by \u2013 and my jaw was just as slack at the end of that adventure as it was at the start.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s the original article:\u00a0 https:\/\/motherboard.vice.com\/en_us\/article\/wj7x9w\/google-chrome-scans-files-on-your-windows-computer-chrome-cleanup-tool<\/a><\/p>\n I\u2019m going to give you the \u201cReader\u2019s Digest\u201d version because I don\u2019t know if many of you are going to read that.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s start with the basics.\u00a0 Google Chrome is a browser, just like Microsoft\u2019s Internet Explorer, and Mozilla\u2019s Firefox, and Apple\u2019s Safari.\u00a0 The browser lets you explore the pages on the World Wide Web.<\/p>\n The focus of this article is that deep within the Google Chrome settings, there is a \u2018clean up\u2019 option that uses a third-party product (from antivirus vendor ESET) to scan for malware that could, potentially, harm the Chrome browser itself.<\/p>\n One of the parameters associated with this option, \u201cReport details to Google,\u201d is defined as follows: \u201cIncludes information about harmful software, system settings, and processes on your computer.\u201d\u00a0 And the default for this setting is to ALWAYS SEND the data to Google!\u00a0 Obviously, this setting lets Google\u2019s developers know how to handle any problems that may have been encountered during the scan.<\/p>\n Now that\u2019d be great if Chrome simply scanned a few known locations in which malware frequently appears and then closed down.<\/p>\n Unfortunately, as the reporter describes it, the scanner reached further into the computer than anyone would have suspected, and it was going through the My Documents folder.\u00a0 I can\u2019t imagine that any malicious software would reside there that could cause any harm to the browser.\u00a0 So that\u2019s just overkill.\u00a0 The exaggerated claim is that Google is spying on you, your files, and your computer.<\/p>\n According to a leading Google developer, the scanner \u201conly runs weekly, it only has normal user privileges (meaning it can\u2019t go too deep into the system), is \u201csandboxed\u201d (meaning its code is isolated from other programs), and users have to explicitly click\u201d on a box if anything is detected.<\/p>\n Like I said, this is the first time I\u2019m hearing about this.\u00a0 But the text of the \u201cagreement\u201d you have with Google when using Chrome can be found here: https:\/\/www.google.com\/chrome\/browser\/privacy\/whitepaper.html#unwantedsoftware<\/a><\/p>\n I looked into this, and it seems that this clean up \u201cfeature\u201d has been in existence for more than a year, and is only now getting any reaction.\u00a0 But that\u2019s the wonderful nature of the Twitter universe.\u00a0 Someone makes a discovery; some of her followers take a closer look and get agitated; a reporter asks a few questions, and then everyone gets all riled up about the intrusive nature of a global corporation.<\/p>\n I doubt that any<\/strong> of my clients who have Chrome have EVER seen a pop-up that malware was found.\u00a0 And I know that many of you use Chrome and that some of you have encountered instances of malware.\u00a0 It\u2019s simply that the software I have installed on your computers scans more frequently than once a week, is constantly updated, and \u2013 most importantly \u2013I monitor the results (not Google!).<\/p>\n While I would want everyone to turn off the setting that sends data to Google, the steps I have followed do not work for more than the logged on session.\u00a0 If you close your browser and then re-open it, the setting turns itself on again.\u00a0 I have checked, and it seems that this setting simply cannot be eliminated.<\/p>\n What\u2019s my recommendation:\u00a0 If you don\u2019t mind having your machine bogged down every now and then by a scanner over which you (and I) have no control, you can continue to use Chrome.\u00a0 But I would really like to know if you ever get a pop-up from Google about malware.\u00a0 Otherwise, if you\u2019d prefer a less intrusive browser, send me an email or give me a call and I\u2019ll install Firefox and transfer your favorites.<\/p>\n Thanks and safe computing!<\/p>\n For the geeky inquisitive individuals, here\u2019s where the settings are located:<\/p>\n Open Google Chrome.<\/p>\n In the upper, right-hand, corner of your screen \u2013just under the red X \u2013 there are three vertical dots (what Google developers call \u201ca hamburger\u201d).\u00a0 Click that and select Settings (near the bottom of the list).<\/p>\n Scroll down the page until you see the word Advanced, and click it to expand the selection.<\/p>\n Scroll all the way to the bottom of the page.<\/p>\n Click on the heading \u201cClean up my computer.\u201d<\/p>\n Move the slider for \u201cReport details to Google\u201d from the blue (on) to the grey (off) position.<\/p>\n Note that this is only good for your current session.\u00a0 If you close your browser and re-open it, the setting will go back to blue (on).\u00a0 As of now, there is no way to permanently disable it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A security-based newsletter entered my Inbox Tuesday afternoon and, like a gerbil, I immediately clicked it open to see what kind of shenanigans were going on in the world of cybersecurity.\u00a0 You can imagine how intrigued I was at the following title:\u00a0 \u201cChrome Is Scanning Files on Your Computer, and People Are Freaking Out.\u201d Well, …<\/span> Read More →<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,40],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-304","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-everyone","category-security"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heliotropicsystems.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heliotropicsystems.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heliotropicsystems.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heliotropicsystems.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heliotropicsystems.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=304"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.heliotropicsystems.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":305,"href":"https:\/\/www.heliotropicsystems.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304\/revisions\/305"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heliotropicsystems.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=304"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heliotropicsystems.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=304"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heliotropicsystems.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=304"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}