Upcoming Chrome Releases Will Prevent Abusive Page Redirects
Google announced that, starting with version 64, the Chrome browser will prevent pages from redirecting to third-party content in unexpected ways.
Iframe Redirects
Google said that one in five Chrome feedback reports mention encountering some type of unwanted content. The company noted that it’s taking user feedback seriously, so beyond Chrome’s existing pop-up blocker and autoplay protections, it will bring three new protections over the next few releases of Chrome that are designed to stop unwanted content.
One piece of feedback from Chrome users is that sometimes a page will navigate to a different page unexpectedly. Google found that often this is not even what the page’s author intended, as the behavior is created by third-party content embedded on the page that wasn’t supposed to redirect visitors to another page.
To address this issue, Chrome 64 will stop such iframe redirects and then show the user an information bar explaining that the redirect was blocked. Chrome will prevent the redirect only if it happens automatically and the user wasn’t interacting with the frame.
Redirects Enabled By User Interaction
Even when the user interacts with the frame, things can go wrong. Some websites open content the user tried to access in a new tab and then redirect the main page to a different website, for example, which effectively bypasses Chrome’s pop-up blocker.
Starting with Chrome 65, this type of behavior will also be curbed by Chrome. When the main tab tries to redirect to another website, Chrome will prevent it from doing so and will also show the user an information bar. This new protection will allow the user to check out the opened content in the new page while also staying on the original page.
Overlay Redirects
Google noted that there are other types of abusive experience that are difficult to automatically detect. Sometimes websites have overlays on them that capture all clicks and redirect users to another site, or the redirect links are embedded within the play button of a video player.
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Starting next January, Chrome’s pop-up blocker will prevent these sites from opening new windows or tabs. To help site owners ensure that their websites won’t be blocked from opening content in new tabs or windows, Google has released the Abusive Experiences Report. The tool will warn the site owners if Chrome’s new protections will prevent content on their websites so they can take the appropriate action to remove such content from their websites.
Lucian Armasu is a Contributing Writer for Tom's Hardware US. He covers software news and the issues surrounding privacy and security.
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derekullo Reply20359704 said:Why is there a keyboard demo in the middle of a browser news article?
Because you don't use an adblocker like:
1. Custom hosts file from "http://winhelp2002.mvps.org/hosts.htm"
2. Adblock Plus
3. Noscript
4. Adguard DNS
https://adguard.com/en/adguard-dns/overview.html
176.103.130.130
176.103.130.131
Tom's is an ad-less site for me.
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TJ Hooker @derekullo some of us want to whitelist Tom's as a way to support a site we like to visit. But they just keep making it harder to want to do so with their increasingly annoying ads...Reply -
Brian_R170 Doesn't Tom's use some of the tactics that the new Chrome releases will be thwarting?Reply -
tedlong17 Do they intend to include this feature in Chrome for Android? Several sleazy mobile carriers (T-mobile, Cricket) use these redirects as revenue producers.Reply -
derekullo Reply20361958 said:@derekullo some of us want to whitelist Tom's as a way to support a site we like to visit. But they just keep making it harder to want to do so with their increasingly annoying ads...
If I wanted to show support I would donate dollars/bitcoin/ethereum.
Unfortunately, Tom's doesn't have a premium membership account that blocks ads.
So they resort to bombarding everyone who uses the site with ads about keyboards.
Blasting us with ads that follow us across the page as we scroll on top of the ads that border the top and sides of the page just makes me want to update my hosts file and or add a custom entry.
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cat1092 Malwarebytes blocked '(2017) Top Free Antivirus, You Wont believe #1'Reply
Something must be fishy when a well known & respected Malwarebytes, now also an AV in it's own right, totally blocks the page from opening. MBAM has blocked many Malware loaded pages from opening, and am surprised that Tom's would host anything that would hint at being Malware, or to loaded site of it.
Still would have liked to known #1 on the list, for me am using Kaspersky Free, a fresh breath of air from the rest that has loads of popups on a near constant basis to upgrade. Protection is great also, there idle scans & also rootkit ones that takes place while running the computer.
I wouldn't be surprised to see that they're #1, the only thing is that the Kaspersky Secure Connection comes bundled. Which is no issue for those just reading news & checking email, yet for those of us who likes YouTube videos & such, or even a huge Windows Update can take away all of the 200MB allowed per day.
Fortunately, Kaspersky Secure Connection is installed as a separate app & can be removed, a mandatory reboot being required, the rest of the software still runs as intended.
On 1st PC I installed Kaspersky Free on, found over a dozen nasties that the Pro versions of ESET NOD32 & Emsisoft Internet Security totally missed, plus three rootkits in the registry. After uploading the file to VirusTotal, Kaspersky was on the money.
Only thing being, while ESET & Emsisoft both reported these as infections, neither removed any. So for now, am sold on Kaspersky Free, of which Windows Defender cannot hold a candle to, an insult to the former to be mentioned in the same sentence as the latter.
So who was #1, since I couldn't get it on this PC with MBAM doing all of the protecting?
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JonDol Reply20361958 said:@derekullo some of us want to whitelist Tom's as a way to support a site we like to visit. But they just keep making it harder to want to do so with their increasingly annoying ads...
I have no doubt that you have the best intentions but sometimes too much is just too much !
Please disable your browser's ad blockers and pay a visit to tomshardware.fr for example. Not only there is a lot of advertising but a good part of the news are also advertising (see the ones starting with ''). Two-three weeks ago during the school children holidays there was a promoted one for every 2-3 'normal' news. I and someone else posted a comment about these promoted news on the 'Black Friday' article and our comments were removed...