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Chrome Is Scanning Files on Your Computer, and People Are Freaking Out (vice.com)

Posted by msmash on from the privacy-woes dept.

Some cybersecurity experts and regular users were surprised to learn about a Chrome tool that scans Windows computers for malware. But there's no reason to freak out about it. From a report: Last year, Google announced some upgrades to Chrome, by far the world's most used browser -- and the one security pros often recommend. The company promised to make internet surfing on Windows computers even "cleaner" and "safer" adding what The Verge called "basic antivirus features." What Google did was improve something called Chrome Cleanup Tool for Windows users, using software from cybersecurity and antivirus company ESET.

[...] Last week, Kelly Shortridge, who works at cybersecurity startup SecurityScorecard, noticed that Chrome was scanning files in the Documents folder of her Windows computer. "In the current climate, it really shocked me that Google would so quietly roll out this feature without publicizing more detailed supporting documentation -- even just to preemptively ease speculation," Shortridge told me in an online chat. "Their intentions are clearly security-minded, but the lack of explicit consent and transparency seems to violate their own criteria of 'user-friendly software' that informs the policy for Chrome Cleanup [Tool]." Her tweet got a lot of attention and caused other people in the infosec community -- as well as average users such as me -- to scratch their heads.

3 of 213 comments (clear)

  1. Performance by Translation+Error · · Score: 5, Interesting

    And what kind of performance hit do I suffer when this happy surprise software runs on my older computer? Do I get to choose when it runs?

    --
    When someone says, "Any fool can see ..." they're usually exactly right.
    1. Re:Performance by reboot246 · · Score: 5, Interesting

      A better question is, have they actually found any viruses? And, if they have found any, have they let the user know about it or have they just quietly deleted it?

      An anti-virus that has been running for a year on millions of computers surely has found something by now. If not, then why run it at all?

      Any answers, Google?

  2. Freaking out? by 110010001000 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Why are people freaking out? You let Google run whatever software they want on your computer. They might be reading all your files and sending them to their servers. How would you know? If you care, why would you run Chrome? What a mess this industry is in now. People should have listened to Stallman. Instead we have "open source" Chrome and Android.