Google announced two levels of website warnings for Chrome’s Safe Browsing Enhanced Protection on October 20, 2026, alongside changes to scam detection with Gemini and checks for suspicious commands copied in ClickFix scams. The warning levels distinguish lower-confidence signals from high-confidence, high-risk verdicts.
Two warning levels for websites
Google describes a suspicious verdict as a lower-confidence signal that a site may harm users. The warning is tailored to deceptive patterns associated with known malicious sites, with its format, icons, colors and text designed to help people decide how to proceed. A dangerous verdict indicates high confidence and high risk of harm; Google says Chrome continues to show a full-page red warning for a page known to be malicious.
| Verdict | Google’s stated assessment | Warning described by Google |
| Suspicious | Lower confidence, with possible risk of harm | A tailored warning about deceptive patterns associated with known malicious sites |
| Dangerous | High confidence and high risk of harm | A full-page red warning for a page known to be malicious |
When Gemini checks for scam signals
Google says the server-side Gemini model for Enhanced Protection users assesses a page’s represented brand, intent and likelihood of being a scam. Safe Browsing combines that analysis with domain reputation and other signals to reach a verdict. Google says the expanded checks cover fake antivirus and browser-update scams, as well as tech-support scams.
Google says Chrome analyzes page text only when a site shows high-confidence scam indicators. Content sent off the device is processed ephemerally, and Google says it is not logged, retained or used to train models.
How Chrome handles suspicious copied commands
ClickFix scams can present a command as a fix for a fake browser problem. For Enhanced Protection users, Google says Chrome detects when someone copies a suspicious command, removes personally identifiable information from the clipboard payload, and sends it to Safe Browsing for analysis. A dangerous verdict can trigger a Chrome warning.
What Google’s safety comparison measures
Google’s “ten times safer” comparison is based on the average number of safety warnings shown to Enhanced Protection users compared with Standard Protection users. It is a comparison of warning volume.
Google also said that more than 1 billion Chrome users had Enhanced Protection enabled in 2025. That figure describes use of the protection mode in that year.
